LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 DAVIS 
 
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 UutfUi't h Vlul(-(|tU|ilt 
 
THE STRANGE CASE OF 
 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
GR ETCH EN 
 
The Strange Case of 
 
 Eric Marotte 
 
 A Modern-Historical Problem-Romance of Chicago 
 
 By 
 JOHN IRVING PEARCE, Jr. 
 
 AUTHOR OF " FROM WITHIN," " LAST DAYS OF LINCOLN," 
 " HEART'S-BASB AND HAWTHORN; MYRTLE AND RUE," 
 
 " LYRICAL SKETCHES," ETC. 
 
 FRONTISPIECE IN COLORS BY 
 
 CARL J. BLENNER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 NORMAN TOLSON 
 
 AND NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 PUBLISHED AT CHICAGO 
 NINETEEN HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN 
 
 . LIBRARY 
 UOTVERSITY OF 
 DAVIS 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1913 
 BY JOHN IRVING PEARCE, JR. 
 
 Alt Rights Reserved 
 
 Published in November 
 
 PRESS AND BINDERY OF 
 
 P. F. PETTIBONE & COMPANY 
 CHICAGO, ILL. 
 

 that undying better part 
 Which sleeps in every human heart, 
 Till bid to wake, and hark and look, 
 I dedicate this human book. 
 
What the Book Contains: 
 
 CHAPTBB PAOK 
 
 I. PROLOGUE . . . . . , . . 13 
 
 II. EARLY CHICAGO DAYS 20 
 
 III. JIM AND JEMIMA . . . . . 35 
 
 IV. THE FOUNDLING . . . , ; . 54 
 V. IN WHICH LIFE CHANGES ITS ASPECT 
 
 TO SEVERAL PERSONS . . . 68 
 
 VI. THE QUARREL . '.'..-. . . 77 
 
 VII. "LITTLE SUNSHINE" 93 
 
 VIII. * TOOLS RUSH IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR 
 
 To TREAD'.' .... . . .104 
 
 IX. "LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM" ... 141 
 X. "THE LEOPARD AND His SPOTS" 
 
 HOPE'S VALEDICTORY ... 156 
 XI. BILL STUBBS COMMITS THE UNPAR 
 DONABLE SIN 168 
 
 XII. "ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW 
 
 FONDER" . ... . . . . 194 
 
 XIII. ENTRE'NOUS . ... || . 206 
 
 XIV. HOME AGAIN: A COLLOQUIAL DIS 
 
 SERTATION ON THE RACE PROBLEM 226 
 
 XV. THE BUM . 253 
 
 XVI. THE BUM'S LONG TALE OF His RE 
 MARKABLE ADVENTURE . . . 261 
 
 XVII. OSTRACISED . .... , . 296 
 
 XVIII. VISITORS AND CONVERGING LINES . 316 
 
 XIX. THE DENOUEMENT . .... 332 
 
 XX. PERORATION 359 
 
ORIGIN OF PLATES 
 
 COVER DESIGN .... By NORMAN TOLSON 
 FRONTISPIECE in Colors . . ByCARLj.BLENNER 
 
 ILLUSTRATED from Charcoal Drawings By NORMAN TOLSON 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS By Courtesy of EDWARD C. WENTWORTH, 
 JAMES W. HEDENBERG and S. LEONARD BOYCE 
 
 Captions of Illustrations 
 
 Gretchen Frontispiece 
 
 PACING PAGE 
 
 Jemima 48 
 
 "Stubbs, in a towering rage, wheeled on him and de 
 liberately struck him in the face" . . . . 90 
 
 A Characteristic Bit of Goose Island .... 108 
 "For a single dramatic second he stood erect" . . 128 
 
 1 'And upon her face was that dreaming glory of per 
 fect peace and love that passeth understanding" 192 
 
 "Neath the Elms of Dear Old Yale" ..... 198 
 
 "The light from the candles on the table threw the 
 faces of those seated around it into a weird, Rem 
 brandt-like relief in chiaroscuro" . . . .216 
 
 View taken from the corner of Michigan Avenue and 
 Madison Street, Chicago, in 1860, showing lake front 
 and basin, and original Central Station . . .298 
 
 View taken from Chicago Court House, in 1859, looking 
 southwest and showing the corner of La Salle and 
 Washington Streets 342 
 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 PROLOGUE 
 
 ;PON a certain isolated street whose 
 name is still considered too unim 
 portant to be lettered upon the 
 scattered lamp-posts that lend by 
 night a semi-luminosity to its fore 
 shortened length ; darkly over 
 towered by the elevators, ware 
 houses, breweries, tanneries, foundries, rolling 
 mills, planing mills and other prosaic labor 
 treadmills that give to " Goose Island, " in 
 the City of Chicago, a mercenary excuse for its 
 existence, shunned as it is by all of nature's 
 charms; there once stood a simple little brick 
 cottage fit only for the lowly home of one who 
 toiled with hardened hands. 
 
 Here where for the bird-songs and whirring 
 wings and the various melodies of nature were 
 substituted the constant rumbling of freight- 
 cars, the swift, short flight of the switch-engines 
 as they shunted and banged the full and empty 
 box cars and " gondolas " to their proper sta 
 tions and the whistle and swash of the infinites 
 imal tug-boats as they pulled and backed the 
 leviathan vessels through the draws. of the di- 
 
 13 
 
14 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 lapidated bridges and into the slips of their 
 temporary moorings; and where the sunny skies 
 and balmy breezes of the fields and woodland 
 had been metamorphosed by a cynical commer 
 cialism into an atmosphere hazy with never- 
 ceasing smoke from restless chimneys, through 
 which the sun itself could scarcely pierce, and 
 an air redolent of tanbark, oil, brewery slops 
 and river sewage made only more noxious to 
 the nostrils by each gust of wind, that brought a 
 cloud of whirling dust from the many indus 
 tries instead of a blessed respite from the heat; 
 here, this humble cot stood out in extravagant 
 relief, a veritable oasis of cleanliness and ver 
 dure, flanked as it was by a miniature garden 
 of immaculate green filled with a profusion of 
 vegetables and old-fashioned flowers and half 
 hidden behind luxuriant vines from which 
 bright roses nodded their friendly and fragrant 
 welcome to the unsuspecting passer-by. 
 
 To one who came suddenly upon it the effect 
 was as startling as if a scintillating star had 
 dropped abruptly from a cloudy sky. 
 
 The house, externally and internally, was 
 spick and span with freshest paint and paper; 
 not a board was loose or out of place in the 
 whole length of the newly whitewashed fence 
 that protected it on every side; the windows 
 shone like polished diamonds; and each book, 
 
PROLOGUE 15 
 
 each article of furniture, bedding, napery and 
 tableware, gave evidence in its condition and 
 methodical arrangement of a critical eye and 
 an indefatigable energy wedded to tireless 
 hands. 
 
 And this little " Paradise Regained " that 
 put to shame its unaesthetic neighbors and lay 
 like a gem of great price in a setting of rough, 
 unfinished iron, was owned and beautified and 
 occupied, not by an exiled artist, an eccentric 
 scion of some highly cultured family, the man 
 aging official of some adjacent business concern, 
 or even some proprietor of such concern him 
 self ; but, strangest of all, by two Negroes one 
 a stalwart man of thirty of jetty Ethiopian 
 blackness; the other, his wife, an Octoroon of 
 more tender years, whose graceful form and 
 unusually pure Circassian-shaped features aug 
 mented a carriage and manner at once modest 
 and refined, and whose height was barely ex 
 ceeded by that of her husband. 
 
 Such a peculiar and astounding combination 
 of personalities and environments would seem 
 so to transcend all reason and experience, and 
 the characters and events which grew about and 
 led to and from them were so strikingly uncon 
 ventional and pathetic and prolific of so much 
 poetic justice, that the writer can not refrain 
 from an endeavor to record them, simply and 
 
16 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 truly, as they lived and came to pass, sincere 
 in his belief that the story of such unusual hap 
 penings to flesh and blood persons as this book 
 relates, possesses, from the very fact of its 
 fidelity to human nature, an additional interest 
 for all who may read it. 
 
 One sultry evening towards the end of Sep 
 tember in the year 188 , just as a loud, sharp 
 steam- whistle announced the closing of the long 
 day's monotonous drudgery in the numerous 
 abodes of toil, and the thousands of grimy and 
 dusty men and boys and clean girls and women 
 began to pour forth from the doorways like 
 bees from their hives, each one in silent pre 
 occupation or noisy exuberance as suited the 
 individual disposition or circumstance; the sin 
 gle human stream from each direction rapidly 
 merging into a larger and more general one 
 along the main cross-town thoroughfares and 
 then filtering out, little by little, on either side 
 as each worker quitted the homogeneous throng 
 to take his or her particular way to home and 
 supper; a horse and wagon rounded the corner 
 into the obscure street leading to this flower- 
 bedecked cottage, and made rapidly towards 
 its awaiting comforts. 
 
 The horse spurned the pavement with light 
 hoofs and a high head, and a gait which bespoke 
 the thoroughbred ; but as he drew closer one be- 
 
PROLOGUE 17 
 
 came conscious of a keen disappointment in his 
 color, which was a pronounced shade of what 
 is commonly called "dirty white, " his other 
 wise beautiful appearance being marred by 
 thousands of unsightly, brownish-black spots 
 completely covering him from nose to tail. 
 
 The wagon was of the style once widely 
 known as the "democrat wagon" and, though 
 evidently but recently washed, showed the in 
 evitable splashings of the implements and sup 
 plies of the whitewashed and calciminer's 
 trades, with which the body of the vehicle was 
 filled. 
 
 Checking speed only long enough to clear 
 smoothly the low curbing, the driver turned his 
 horse from the street and continued on across 
 an adjoining vacant lot, to the rear of the 
 house, where lay a tiny frame barn and wagon- 
 shed. Here he unhitched the horse and, after 
 a few minutes spent in rubbing and bedding- 
 down and feeding him, gave him a friendly 
 pat on the haunch, backed the wagon into the 
 shed, locked both doors, and, followed by a 
 muffled whinny from the nag, whose nose was 
 deep in oats, passed with glad steps and a beam 
 ing face through the sweet-smelling garden to 
 the kitchen door of the little house o'ershaded 
 by a single immense, old willow tree. 
 
 And what a welcome he received! ye 
 
18 ERIC MAEOTTE 
 
 gentlemen of wealth and culture who let your 
 selves into your expensive and elaborate homes 
 at eve with keys that open complicated, burglar- 
 proof locks which hold the world at haughty 
 arm's length, or are ushered in by obsequious 
 butlers or simpering maids, to meet the quer 
 ulous complaints, the thoughtless impatience or 
 vast indifference of pampered wives and daugh 
 ters; what would you not give to know and feel 
 that you would be welcomed and welcomed 
 every night not simply as a "good provider' 1 
 or a necessary adjunct to some one ambitious 
 woman's establishment, but lovingly met at the 
 door in rain or shine, success or failure, by arms 
 that sought your neck, lips that longed for the 
 touch of yours and faces which blushed for very 
 happiness at sight of you again met with that 
 intuitive prescience of your near approach, that 
 quick step, and that unconscious eagerness to 
 turn the handle of the door before your hand 
 can reach it, which prove you welcome for your 
 self alone! 
 
 And, ye young men of humbler station, yet 
 who may still aspire to that monetary Elysium 
 which dances like an ignis fatuus ever beyond 
 you; how blessed be your lot if your wife or 
 family so manage the household's affairs and 
 so order her or their lives, that your daily 
 change from working-place to home is not the 
 
PROLOGUE 19 
 
 shedding of one species of worry for the putting 
 on of another, but a transition from care to 
 carelessness, from strain to reaction, from doubt 
 to hope ; so that every night is gratefully looked 
 forward to as a constantly recurring and unfail 
 ing reward for patient effort, and you are not 
 made to feel that you are expected to accom 
 plish complete and final success before you can 
 hope to indulge in any real happiness and re 
 gard at home! 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY CHICAGO DAYS 
 
 ) James Manning (or "Honest 
 Jim," as he was generally called 
 by both his employers and his em 
 ployees as well as by his imme 
 diate neighbors) and his wife 
 Jemima this cozy cottage home 
 represented the savings of years of rigid econ 
 omy and self-denial; and not until they had 
 paid off the last penny of the original mortgage 
 on it did they venture into the gradual outlay 
 which had brought it to its present perfection, 
 contenting themselves, up to that hour, with 
 such improvements and embellishing as they 
 could compass with their own strong arms and 
 never-idle hands. 
 
 But, unique as was the result, the chronicle 
 of the details of their struggles against the vi 
 cissitudes of fortune, of their frequent despair- 
 ings and intermitted hopes, of their cruel rebuffs 
 and unexpected helpings, all crowding one upon 
 another but glorified and redeemed from pro- 
 saicness by their abounding faith in themselves 
 and God; would savor too much of the common 
 lot and of "the short and simple annals of the 
 
 20 
 
EAELY CHICAGO DAYS 21 
 
 poor" to be of importance here. It is enough 
 to say that in their case persistency and intelli 
 gence, an eagerness to learn and the humility 
 to do well each succeeding necessary thing, be 
 it never so small, menial or monotonous, that 
 came to their hands to do, met with a bright 
 final recompense, both mental and material, 
 the which their well balanced minds and cheery 
 temperaments and a fortunate freedom from ill 
 ness enabled them to retain undimmed. 
 
 Born and raised in the South, the son of 
 ex-slave parents, Jim had led the ordinary life 
 of the pickaninny and the bare-footed negro 
 boy, with nothing to particularly distinguish 
 him from others of like color and conditions, 
 until ten years, filled with the same evanescent 
 sorrows and lightly invented, costless pleasures 
 to which the childhood of the poor is heir the 
 world over, had left their strengthening touches 
 on his sturdy frame and awakening conscious 
 ness of strife upon his dawning mind. 
 
 Jim had attended, previous to this, such 
 schools, and at such times, as the white author 
 ities then permitted black children to enter and 
 the necessity of helping towards his own sup 
 port allowed, and being a fairly apt scholar and 
 of an inquisitive turn of mind, could now read 
 and cipher and had a smattering of the lower 
 English branches. He knew the map of the 
 
22 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 world and its different divisions of lands and 
 waters, and had a somewhat hazy but workable 
 idea of its countries and nations. Even this 
 much, in that day of slow and painful "recon 
 struction," was by many of the Southern whites 
 considered as "'too damned much for a nigger 
 to know." He had also acquired clandestine 
 possession of a rather loose-leafed and battered, 
 but, withal, still serviceable copy of a certain 
 popular Southern school history of the United 
 States, in which classic volume either the world 
 came to an end in 1861, or else the history of 
 the Civil War and the "lost cause" was glossed 
 over, with the confident belief of the ostrich, 
 which, when pursued, hides its head in the sands 
 of the desert in the ingenuous belief that blind 
 ing himself must make equally blind his pur 
 suers. 
 
 In this way Jim formed the innocent opinion 
 that George Washington was quite a lofty char 
 acter and wholly unmercenary, as a " real south 
 ern gentleman, sah!" should be. Of Lincoln 
 he had, of course, heard many wonderful stories 
 through his own downtrodden race, and he 
 loved the memory of that God-like man. Over 
 the aforesaid history and a discarded Northern 
 biography of Lincoln, Jim often pored with rapt 
 interest, and wondered that every one who read 
 such works did not feel their charm as did he. 
 
EARLY CHICAGO DAYS 23 
 
 If Lincoln could know to-day what noble 
 pleasure what star-like incentive to unselfish 
 ambition the perusal of his life's story has 
 given to his posterity, he would deem it his most 
 exquisite appreciation. Many men have been 
 great, but few have been both great and good. 
 "God raiseth up in His own hour His banner 
 bearers true, His wondrous work to do." 
 
 Now, why a Negro should bother his head 
 about patriotism or the history of human great 
 ness, when he had everything to lose and noth 
 ing to gain by their study, in that he must there 
 by become discontented with his own naturally 
 humble sphere and vainly strive for another 
 which his white-in-color-only neighbors held to 
 be sacred to themselves and their descendants, 
 is not easy to explain, except upon the theory 
 that he was, possibly, human. So the Southron 
 reader will have to remain in a certain measure 
 of ignorance as to what practical sense actuated 
 Jim and others of his caste in their desire to 
 emulate in some way the great and good of 
 whom they fitfully heard or read. 
 
 In Jim 's case, he was, fortunately, too young 
 to vote; so the local politicians, self -ordained 
 scavengers of earthly hope then as now over 
 looked him and held no especial grudge against 
 him for aspiring to become an Dedicated nig- 
 gah, sah ! ' ' and vote the Eepublican ticket. 
 
24 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 But, to proceed in Jim's tenth year there 
 came to him his first great grief and change in 
 the death of his father and the emigration of 
 his mother to the "Nawth"; there to seek 
 among strange faces a fancied escape from the 
 perpetual sad remindings of old scenes and 
 familiar associations, and, incidentally, a more 
 dependable subsistence for herself and child. 
 To Jim the journey was a veritable trip through 
 fairy-land, to whose charm his spirits responded 
 with the joyous resiliency of expanding youth. 
 After a day and two nights in the " Jim Crow" 
 cars of the South and the day coach of a North 
 ern railway, the twain arrived safely in Chi 
 cago, then a city of fatal architecture, flimsy 
 buildings and bottomless streets; uncouth, un 
 clean and undismayed. 
 
 Jim's mother being entirely willing to work, 
 and a " perfectly good" cook and careful wash 
 er-woman, and being, moreover, both strong and 
 saving without the Southern Negroes' usual 
 tendency to labor only three or four days in 
 each week and then "play lady" or lie around 
 drunk until their wages are gone ; had little 
 trouble in gradually finding more and more pat 
 rons. Many of these who had heretofore had 
 to put up with very indifferent work by irre 
 sponsible extra-helpers, appreciated her for her 
 sterling worth and honest ability, and soon she 
 

 EARLY CHICAGO DAYS 25 
 
 was never without employment. Living at home 
 with Jim and working out by the day only, she 
 received much higher pay than did servants 
 hired by the month generally a dollar and a 
 half a day besides her noon meal and she saved 
 it. Expecting to suffer from actual want at 
 first, in a part of the country new to her, she 
 was prepared to wage resistless battle against 
 fate; but such dire necessity never came, and 
 she and her boy lived comfortably enough so 
 far as their physical well-being was concerned. 
 
 Jim found ways to turn an occasional honest 
 penny before and after school hours and during 
 the long summer vacations, which were not en 
 ervating with stagnant heat like those of the 
 South, and she did not take him away from his 
 studies until he had graduated from common 
 school, where the Northern Negroes had then, 
 as they still have, the same identical opportu 
 nities for an education as the white children, 
 and without segregation. 
 
 Though a woman of no education herself and 
 born in slavery, she had followed, not only her 
 husband's dying request, but her own inclina 
 tion in carrying the burden so far alone, that 
 their boy might reach at least this height of 
 knowledge practically denied him in the South 
 but beyond that she felt she could not go, 
 and he must begin to act for himself thereafter. 
 
26 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Jim promptly decided it was time for him to go 
 to work. 
 
 There are as yet so few trades or professions 
 open to the Negro even in the North that to Jim 
 the question of procuring employment was not 
 so much a choice of many lines of occupation, 
 as a shop to shop hunt for an opening in some 
 one of the few in which the Negro's services 
 are accepted ; and, after many disappointing re 
 fusals, he was finally taken on as an apprentice 
 by an old colored man who had followed for 
 years the humble calling of calcimining and 
 whitewashing contractor. As these "arts" are 
 easily acquired, Jim soon mastered all his em 
 ployer had to teach, and, adding plain painting 
 as an auxiliary flourish, he one day invested the 
 hard-won earnings of himself and mother in a 
 modest horse and wagon and shop outfit of his 
 own, and became an independent contractor. He 
 never waited for work to come to him, but val 
 iantly and thoroughly canvassed the city for it; 
 and, as he always did a little more and a little 
 better work than his contracts called for, he 
 kept every customer once obtained, and the 
 business grew till he was . seldom disengaged 
 and often had to employ assistants as the scope 
 of his undertakings enlarged. 
 
 In the course of time his mother passed away, 
 leaving him as an inheritance her blessing ancf 
 
EARLY CHICAGO DAYS 27 
 
 courageous example, together with the few hun 
 dreds of dollars which represented the result 
 of her whole free-lifetime of simple industry 
 and firm determination ; and Jim was left wholly 
 alone in the world. 
 
 He had never associated to any great extent 
 with other Negroes, finding in the society of his 
 cheerful mother and the companionship of books 
 all the relaxation and amusement he required; 
 and her departure left him almost a recluse, 
 and awakened in him a natural desire for social 
 intercourse with the outside world and that of 
 the black man being one of the most gregarious 
 of races, bound together by the common ties 
 of long years of former abject slavery, as yet 
 unremote, and a community of color not to be 
 denied, new acquaintances were readily formed 
 and new friendships easily cemented. But hab 
 its of thoughtfulness and silent musing are not 
 to be shaken off like a glove, and he would 
 often, after the day's toil, wander the streets 
 until far into the night, peopling its shadowy 
 stillness with the bright visions and figures of 
 his imagination and wondering over the prob 
 able lives and passions of the sleeping occupants 
 of the darkened houses and of the few belated 
 pedestrians whom he passed. The rude gal 
 lantry and adventurous spirit of some ancestor 
 of a long-forgotten generation of Africans trans- 
 
28 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 mitted through centuries of ostensible eclipse, 
 reappeared in him in the mild atavism of these 
 nocturnal rambles. 
 
 It was an ever-present obsession of his that, 
 if Bomance should ever touch with her magic 
 wand his solitary, plebeian lot, she must come 
 to him under the transporting moon, the star 
 lit sky or the overcast heavens of some such 
 night as those in which he walked alone with 
 Nature and his own heart's speculations. 
 
 At the period of which I write, the principal 
 Negro settlement of Chicago lay from State 
 street west to the Chicago Kiver's south branch 
 and between Jackson and Twelfth street, where 
 were domiciled also the very poorest of the for 
 eign population, largely Irish, the other, diver 
 sified, nationalities not having immigrated to 
 that city in any such numbers as they did later 
 on. This district was also the "Ghetto" of that 
 day, with numerous little Hebrew shops, many 
 of the proprietors of which, or their descendants, 
 are now among Chicago 's leading merchants and 
 manufacturers. 
 
 The remarkable transformation into its pres 
 ent aspect and conditions was due to three radi 
 cal events. First, the Great Fire of 1871 burnt 
 to the ground every building on the South side 
 north of Harrison street and east of the river; 
 then the second enormous conflagration, of 1874, 
 

 
 EARLY CHICAGO DAYS -29 
 
 in itself one of the famous fires of modern times, 
 starting almost at the line where that of 1871 
 left off on the south, cleaned out about every 
 thing of any consequence in the poverty-stricken 
 neighborhood south of Harrison street and west 
 of State to Twelfth street, before mentioned; 
 and finally the railroads, seeing their opportu 
 nity thus thrust upon them by fate, bought out 
 a vast number of the property owners there. 
 And so the periodical removals and changing 
 character of its resident population has gone on 
 and on, till now a few Greeks, Italians and bums, 
 the transients and the disreputables, are the 
 only stragglers left the latter class, by the 
 way, having been banished in a body by an edict 
 of the City Fathers to the Twenty-second street 
 " red-light " district several years ago to make 
 way for the entering wedge of the present great 
 printing and office buildings which reduce its 
 narrow streets to dark canyons of commerce. 
 
 The geographical line of demarcation be 
 tween the rich and the poor, the educated and 
 the ignorant, on what is known as the South 
 Side of the city, was just as clearly and jealously 
 drawn then as now; and, while everything west 
 of State street was characteristic of poverty and 
 depravity and the slums, Michigan and Wabash 
 avenues (and later Prairie, Indiana and Calu 
 met avenues) and the side streets east of State 
 
30 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 street, were lined with the palatial homes of 
 the then-established families and the nouveau 
 riche of the time, even as far north as Randolph 
 street. The Illinois Central Railway was prac 
 tically out in the lake, its tracks laid on a break 
 water of piling, between which and the shore 
 line east of Michigan avenue lay a long narrow 
 basin much in vogue with those timid oarsmen 
 who feared to attempt the rougher surface of 
 the lake beyond. This basin was abruptly and 
 completely filled up in 1872 by dumpings of the 
 debris from the ruins of the Great Fire. 
 
 The Original Town of Chicago was built on 
 a swamp. Before the down-town streets were 
 raised and repaved and the buildings gradually 
 jack-screwed up some twenty feet to the present 
 datum, the road-beds were impassable in many 
 places, with ' ' No Bottom Here ' ' signs stuck up 
 on the dangerous spots. 
 
 Horses frequently went down to their bellies 
 in the thick mud, and had to be extricated by 
 placing timbers under them and prying them 
 loose. As each building was raised, a temporary 
 elevated board sidewalk was erected, in front 
 of that particular building only, with wooden 
 steps leading up to it from either side; so that 
 a walk in any direction consisted of an irregu 
 lar series of alternative ups and downs nearly 
 doubling the distance traversed; but most of 
 
EABLY CHICAGO DAYS 31 
 
 the population was young and didn't mind the 
 involuntary exercises entailed. 
 
 At the era here indicated, Thirty-ninth 
 street on the south, Western avenue on the 
 west and Fullerton avenue on the north, were 
 the outward limits of the then incorporated 
 city, recently extended; and public opinion 
 was sarcastically skeptical of the likelihood 
 of such immense and sparsely settled regions 
 of farms, woods, swamps and cabbage patches 
 as these far-flung boundaries encircled, ever 
 being filled up with houses and inhabited 
 by man. The l ' funny men ' ' cracked jokes about 
 it both on and off the stage and in the daily 
 papers, and one particular enthusiast who ven 
 tured to prophesy that Chicago would grow to 
 a population of a million souls during the life 
 time of those present, was seriously believed to 
 be insane. 
 
 What street cars then existed (and against 
 which the livery stable men were all up in arms, 
 saying they were ruining their business) were 
 propelled by the festive horse or philosophical 
 mule temporarily superseded at one date by di 
 minutive broncos in pairs at a speed in winter, 
 equivalent, on an average, to that of a good, 
 swift walker. And in winter, too, the passen 
 gers were kept from freezing in the entirely 
 unheated cars by covering their floors to the 
 
32 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 depths of two feet with nice, clean hay (after 
 ward utilized for horse-bedding) which they 
 were at liberty to fight for and to wind about 
 their pedal extremities to prevent frost-bites. 
 It was no uncommon sight to see even men with 
 shawls over their laps or around their shoulders, 
 like travelers in the railway coaches in Eng 
 land and on the Continent; and those who were 
 too poor, too proud, or too athletic to carry 
 shawls, sat on their hands to keep them from 
 numbing ( and looked their envy at the ladies, 
 who had but to transfer their wraps from their 
 shoulders to their knees, and vice versa, to be 
 in full feather for either riding or walking. 
 Sometimes it was even too chilly for swearing; 
 and the only place in which to seek the con- 
 solating warmth of a " smoke " was on the ex 
 posed front platform of the rocking ark, where 
 one could listen to the more-calloused driver 
 cursing his slipping and floundering " Bucepha 
 lus" and " Pegasus. " 
 
 In the frequent heavy snow-storms of the 
 cold weather a liberal supply of brooms and 
 snow-shovels formed a part of the equipment of 
 every car; and the men passengers were ex 
 pected to, and did, get out and shovel a path 
 for the horses whenever the car got snowbound 
 in a drift, the conductor obligingly ceasing beat 
 ing his arms across his chest long enough to 
 
EARLY CHICAGO DAYS 33 
 
 brush off the snow from their shoulders and 
 boots as each of them re-entered the car. Upon 
 which occasion their sedentary co-travelers re 
 ceived them with all the respect and admiration 
 now accorded the sun-browned athlete with the 
 golf -bag, and anxiously enquired of them how 
 much further they thought the car could go be 
 fore it struck another drift and the other fel 
 lows' turns would come to hop out and clear 
 the track for the happy street car company. 
 Though no heat was furnished of any kind by 
 the local transit companies, of which there was 
 one on each of the three sides of the river, no 
 one, even when it was colder inside than outside 
 the cars, ever thought of demanding that they 
 put in car-stoves; but, when any victim became 
 so numb as to be in real danger of " freezing 
 stiff, " he dropped off and walked or ran to 
 start his blood in circulation again, catching 
 his car further along when he felt better. 
 
 Oh! those were the good, old halcyon days 
 for Chicago's street railway magnates, God 
 b 'em ! 
 
 All that remained in 1900 to link the memory 
 with this glorious regime of past enterprise and 
 public-spiritedness in our quasi-public corpora 
 tions, was the nightly apparition, seen at about 
 two A. M., of the mock-legal, abbreviated ghost- 
 cars, those ghastly visitants from the grave- 
 
34 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 yard of greed that slowly glided and bumped 
 over certain long-unused tracks of the down 
 town and a few other districts lost and wan 
 dering haunts going from somewhere to no 
 where and back again, collecting no fares, and 
 carrying no passengers but their superannuated 
 drivers and conductors, who were apparently 
 so superstitious of the never-cleaned and cav 
 ernous vehicles that they never were seen to 
 pass inside of them, but perched on the dilapi 
 dated, swaying platforms, fore and aft, through 
 thunder and lightning, storm and hail, snow 
 and heat, fair weather and foul, like gaunt, 
 dark birds of ill-omen, guarding the sacred 
 rights of the franchise lords perhaps within 
 the letter of the law, but far outside the pale of 
 its spirit and meaning. 
 
 They were the Eip Van Winkles of trans 
 portation conveyances; as old and as wonder 
 fully constructed as "the deacons celebrated 
 one-hoss shay" and far more lasting. 
 
 Jim and, before her death, his mother were 
 in, but not of, the Negro quarter; and in his 
 aimless evening walks his innate love of the 
 beautiful frequently led the former towards 
 Lake Michigan with its ever-changing moods, 
 and through the better residence portions of 
 the South side. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 JIM AND JEMIMA 
 
 NE cheerless, bleak November 
 night, when the pavements and 
 sidewalks were slippery in the 
 well-trodden places from the 
 first heavy snowfall, which the 
 quickly following cold north wind had con 
 gealed and held intact even in the traffic-filled 
 streets of , the city, and when the stars blinked 
 softly in a cloud-tracked, moonless sky; Jim, 
 walking along rather more briskly than was 
 his wont, in order to breast the stinging 
 blasts, passed northward . and homeward along 
 Wabash avenue. The hour was late and the 
 street nearly deserted, those whom duty or 
 pleasure called without, hurrying past un 
 mindful of his presence, slipping on the ice, 
 leaping through the drifts in an effort to land 
 their feet in the holes made by earlier pedestri 
 ans (in which effort they generally and sig 
 nally failed to the delight of the lookers-on) ; 
 and damning old Boreas and all his wintry 
 tribe. 
 
 Nearing the corner of Eldridge court, Jim 
 bent his head to the counter blast roaring up 
 
 35 
 
36 ERIC MAROTTB 
 
 from the lake, and, bracing his shoulders to 
 the double assault of the storm king, broke for 
 the crossing, on the run. 
 
 Just as he reached the farther corner, half 
 blinded by the eddying, cutting snow and sleet, 
 someone brushed past him going hurriedly 
 towards the south, and, looking around quickly, 
 he saw in the dim light the figure of a young 
 girl. She was poorly and thinly clad, the wind 
 now whirling her scanty skirts high above her 
 knees and now blowing them tightly around 
 her legs behind, where they sped her onward 
 like a sail. 
 
 He had scarcely time to note the frightened 
 movements of her body and her evident fear of 
 pursuit, before he was jostled by two men who, 
 crowding by him with an oath and some semi- 
 intelligible, slighting remark about "plucking 
 the pretty snow-drop ahead, ' ' followed after her. 
 Stepping to the curb to avoid the glare of the 
 street lamps so he could look beyond the men, 
 he saw the girl give one terrified backward 
 glance and then commence running. At this the 
 men increased their own pace, with so sure an 
 indication of their intention of overtaking her 
 that Jim hesitated no longer, but darted to the 
 opposite side of the street and, unnoticed in 
 the darkness and storm and unsuspected by the 
 two men in their preoccupation, gained rapidly 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 37 
 
 upon them and was soon trailing them directly 
 opposite but just behind their line of vision. 
 
 ^The men worked closer and closer to their 
 flying prey, Jim in the meanwhile growing hot 
 and cold by turns; when, at the end of the sec 
 ond block, the poor girl, either from the iciness 
 of the pavement or ^because of her excessive 
 fright, lost her footing and fell, striking her 
 head against an iron-fence railing. As she at 
 tempted to rise, half stunned, one of her pursu 
 ers reached her side, and taking her by the 
 shoulders, pushed her down again upon her back 
 and held her t there. The other marauder, who 
 was the shorter of the two, stooped low and, 
 grasping her feet, raised them in the air. Pull 
 ing both, her dress-skirt and woolen underskirt 
 up above her waist, he threw them over her 
 head, and his companion held them tight against 
 her mouth to stifle her cries for help. The two 
 then essayed to lift her bodily from the ground ; 
 but, driven to desperation, she kicked and strug 
 gled so fiercely that she broke the short man's 
 hold on one of her ankles; and, in his sudden 
 snatch to regain it, he over-balanced and tum 
 bled, the heel of her shoe shod with a skate- 
 iron hitting him squarely on the temple as he 
 went down. 
 
 All this transpired in the space of a few 
 seconds and before Jim could recover from that 
 
 
38 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 strange and benumbing mental trance with 
 which a sudden mental shock ties in impotency 
 the hands and feet until the paralyzed blood 
 revives and rushes again through its proper 
 channels. But before the fallen man, rubbing 
 his head and cursing with pain, could get up, 
 Jim had swung across the street automatically, 
 and attacked him from the rear, delivering a 
 kick on his jaw that dropped him like a fat 
 steer. He lay there senseless and unmoving. 
 Turning instantly to meet the other villain, who 
 had partly let go of the girl to defend himself 
 against this unexpected succorer, he grappled 
 him with the strength and fury of a madman, 
 and boy as he was, and much the lighter of the 
 two combatants, was fast reducing his adver 
 sary to sorry straits, when the latter drew a 
 revolver from the outside pocket of his over 
 coat and, unable to take aim, fired point-blank 
 at Jim; then wheeled to the left, stumbled over 
 the form of the girl, righted himself by a su 
 preme exertion and ran. 
 
 Blinded by the flash and powder of the gun 
 at so short a range and exhausted and stupefied 
 by the terrific contact of the struggle and its 
 sudden ending, Jim reeled against a tree, and 
 clung there dazed, until his clearing brain began 
 to perceive his surroundings first, as in a haze 
 and then more distinctly, but without power 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 39 
 
 to associate the present moment with those just 
 passed. On coming completely to his senses 
 he was conscious of his left hand instinctively 
 trying to brush away something from his face 
 and shirt-front, and, holding it to the light, he 
 found it covered with blood. He wondered 
 whose blood it was until he discovered it was 
 still trickling from a glancing gun-shot wound 
 on his own forehead. Fumbling in his pockets, 
 he extracted his handkerchief and bound it 
 about his head, and making up his mind he 
 could not be seriously hurt as his hands and 
 feet still obeyed his will, he picked up the re 
 volver, which his last antagonist had dropped 
 when he discharged it, and held it in readiness 
 to repulse any assault from the other man, 
 whom he last remembered as lying senseless on 
 the frozen grass. But he was gone, having un 
 doubtedly "come to" in time to choose discre 
 tion as the better part of valor. 
 
 So, seeing no sign of either of his vanquished 
 foes, Jim looked around as sharply as he could, 
 in his present plight, for the girl he had de 
 fended. He finally found her crawling on her 
 hands and knees towards another tree some 
 three hundred feet away, crying ,and talking to 
 herself incoherently. When he approached her 
 she had reached the tree ; and she tried to hide 
 behind it, as though she thought him one of 
 
40 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 her assailants. It was several minutes before he 
 was able to pacify and reassure her sufficiently 
 to induce her to let him touch her. But upon 
 observing his bandaged forehead and blood 
 stained face and clothes, she seemed to recover 
 rapidly from her delirious state; and he lifted 
 her into an upright position and -supported her 
 wavering steps to the nearest lamp-post's light. 
 (As usual, not a policeman was in sight; and 
 the sound of the pistol shot was drowned in the 
 roar of the gale and excited no attention from 
 other citizens.) 
 
 Here he was enabled for the first time to 
 look at her closely, and he was startled by the 
 beauty and graceful outlines of her youthful 
 face and figure, which were strongly apparent 
 in spite of her terrible experience and disar 
 ranged, shabby clothes. One of her stockings 
 was down and the heel broken from a shoe, and 
 her dress-skirt was nearly torn from her body. 
 Her hat was gone and her luxuriant black hair 
 streamed in the wind, alternately revealing and 
 hiding her pale countenance. Commiserating 
 her embarrassed shrinking from his gaze, Jim 
 slipped off his overcoat, and, wrapping it closely 
 about her shivering shape, asked her "How far 
 it was to her home; or where she wished him 
 to take her." It appeared from the story she 
 voluntarily told to him, that she lived far over 
 

 JIM AND JEMIMA 41 
 
 on the West side with a dressmaker for whom 
 she worked, and had been sent out that night 
 to deliver a package near Michigan avenue and 
 Thirteenth street. She had some difficulty in 
 locating the right person to whom to deliver 
 the package, and had been further delayed while 
 its recipient tried on and criticised the garments 
 it contained; so it was quite late before she 
 could start back. That, becoming confused by 
 the darkness and the unfamiliar streets, she 
 had stopped to ask her way of the two men; 
 and they, having purposely misdirected her, 
 turned about and followed along after her; when 
 she became thoroughly alarmed and ran des 
 perately ahead, caring not which way she went 
 so long as she might succeed in shaking them 
 off. 
 
 She had no friends or acquaintances living 
 on the South side, it was already past one 
 o'clock in the morning and she was trembling 
 from the reaction of her exciting escape and 
 chilled with the cold. It was imperative, there 
 fore, to act promptly; and when Jim proposed 
 to take her to his own home for the night, she 
 gave him one long, penetrating look and said, 
 "Yes; she could trust him and v would go with 
 him, especially since he needed immediate at 
 tention for his own injured head." Their walk 
 was a hard and dreary one, but, with frequent 
 
42 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 stops to let her rest, they shortly reached his 
 house. They found it shut up and no one at 
 home, the woman who generally attended to the 
 cooking and housework for Jim being away 
 at the bedside of a sick child. Either Jim did 
 not know of her probable absence or else he 
 had thought of it too late to change his plans. 
 He was himself nearly exhausted and the girl 
 on the verge of collapsing, and he set her down 
 on the outside steps while he went to unlock 
 the front door and turn on the lights in the 
 kitchen and his bedroom. This was the only 
 sleeping room in service in the house at the 
 time, his mother 's room having been closed 
 since her decease and the charwoman sleeping 
 out. 
 
 When he returned to conduct in the young 
 girl, he discovered she had fainted from ex 
 posure and her exertions; so he was compelled 
 to gather her up in his arms and carry her, tak 
 ing her into the kitchen and dropping her in 
 a large rocking-chair. Fortunately there was 
 still a low fire, easily replenished, in each of 
 the two small stoves the one-story building 
 contained, and, throwing a shovelful or two 
 of fresh coal on each, Jim unhesitatingly 
 pulled off her shoes and stockings, which 
 were wringing wet, moved the chair close up 
 to the kitchen stove; and, hunting up a half 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 43 
 
 empty bottle of brandy he recollected seeing in 
 the cupboard at the time of his mother's last 
 illness, he forced her to swallow most of its 
 contents. This brought a slight color to her 
 white face and caused her to move spasmodi 
 cally for a minute, but she relapsed again into 
 unconsciousness. He bathed her forehead with 
 cold water, chafed her hands, arms and feet, 
 and did everything he could think of to bring 
 her to, but without avail. 
 
 [The pistol-wound in his head, aggravated by 
 inattention and the severe strain he had gone 
 through, now began to pain him severely; he 
 felt a dizziness coming over him which he could 
 not dispel; and the blood which had coagulated 
 on the wound in the cold night air commenced 
 to soften and flow in the heat of the room. 
 
 Alarmed by his own condition, he hastily 
 bandaged the injury anew with a wet towel, 
 and despairing of reviving his inert patient 
 before he should himself become too faint to 
 wait upon her, he lifted her carefully from 
 the chair and carried her unsteadily into his 
 own bedroom. There he removed his over 
 coat, which he had thus far left on her to assist 
 the warmth of the stove, and laid her gently 
 and respectfully on the bed. 
 
 In removing the overcoat her dress-skirt 
 came away with it and fell on the floor. He 
 
 
44 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 covered her softly with a blanket, then turned 
 down the light; and he had just sufficient 
 strength left to start towards the door, after 
 one last smoothing of her hair from her face 
 and an irresistible touching of his lips to her 
 brow; when overtaxed nature gave way. He 
 sank slowly beside the bed, his overcoat where 
 it opportunely lay, softening the force of the 
 fall to his head, and all became a blank to him. 
 And there the caretaker found them in the 
 morning with their positions unchanged, except 
 that he in his semi-delirium had rolled over 
 towards the bed and thrown his arm upon her 
 pillow, and she in her dreams had locked her 
 fingers in his and reclined facing him with his 
 hand lightly pressed against her now-fevered 
 cheek. Bousing him in trepidation from his 
 condition of half sleep, half stupor, the care 
 taker hurried him into the kitchen; and upon 
 examining his hurt, went after a near-by doc 
 tor. The latter came at once and dressed the 
 wound, pronouncing it not dangerous, and then 
 gave his attention to the still-sleeping maiden. 
 He advised them not to disturb her, as rest and 
 slumber were nature 's own, and the best, spe 
 cifics for her recovery, and quietly took his de 
 parture, leaving instructions to call him only 
 when she should have awakened naturally and 
 of her own accord. 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 45 
 
 After a light breakfast and a more circum 
 stantial retelling of his adventure to the anxi 
 ously curious old colored woman, Jim ventured 
 into the darkened chamber of the sleeper, and 
 opening slightly the wooden inside blinds, gazed 
 long and earnestly upon the unconscious com 
 panion of his recent strange encounter. And as 
 he looked the realization was suddenly borne in 
 upon him that romance had come to him at 
 last and the prophecy of his nocturnal imagin 
 ings had proved true. 
 
 Business was not to be thought of in the 
 suspense hanging over the slow hours that might 
 elapse before the girl opened her eyes again, 
 and the two faithful watchers remained in the 
 kitchen, eagerly listening for the first sound 
 from the room beyond. When it eventually 
 came Jim sent the motherly woman in alone 
 to nurse her and soothe her first alarm at her 
 unfamiliar surroundings ; and when, a half hour 
 later, the two appeared in the doorway, he was 
 busily engaged in preparing supper and endeav 
 ored to look unconcerned. 
 
 Not so the young girl; she went straight up 
 to him and, holding out her hands, called him 
 by name and in that moment all the pent up 
 affection of his lonely young heart went out 
 to her. 
 
 The older woman remained at the house; and, 
 
46 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 owning no living relatives to whom she could 
 go or appeal, the younger one was persuaded 
 to stay there for a day or two until she should 
 entirely recover from her nervous shock and 
 they could determine the best method of pro 
 viding for her immediate future. For she had 
 no desire to return to her old situation with 
 the dressmaker, where she had been poorly fed 
 and miserably paid and had slept alone in an 
 unheated garret. With her consent, Jim under 
 took to find for her some more propitious open 
 ing elsewhere. 
 
 She was very young and willing, though ut 
 terly destitute, and her womanly charms just 
 budding into such a promise of rare fascination 
 that Jim could not bear the thought of thrusting 
 her again out unguarded upon the cold world ; 
 and it was mutually decided between the three 
 that she was to continue a welcome guest there 
 indefinitely. Her approval of this arrangement 
 was obtained, however, only upon the assurance 
 that she should be allowed to do everything in 
 her power about the house and to add her mite 
 to the finances of the home as soon as she se 
 cured paid work. The mother's long-dismantled 
 sleeping room was reopened and prepared for 
 its two new occupants; the older woman, who 
 was a childless widow, moved her belongings 
 into the house ; and thus Jim made his premier 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 47 
 
 entree in the role of head of a household. 
 Through his constant reading and his long non- 
 association with other, illiterate, Negroes, he 
 had already dropped his native dialect, and his 
 language was now practically that of the bet 
 ter class of white people. In fact, he was, if 
 anything, too seriously inclined towards exact 
 ness in .both rhetoric and life, though he under 
 stood his own practical limitations and that of 
 his race at large in those respects. 
 
 Jemima, the girl, was of a sunny, helpful 
 disposition and fairly well educated, with a nat 
 ural, inherited refinement ; the other woman was 
 thankful for a home and eager to cook appe 
 tizing dishes; Jim was full of his newly-discov 
 ered passion for feminine grace and charm and 
 proud of his abruptly-acquired dignity of pre 
 siding at the head of the table ; and here for 
 many blissful days, oblivious of society's con 
 ventions, they passed their mornings and even 
 ings together in intelligent discourse and un 
 affected happiness such happiness as might 
 be envied by many a strait-laced matron and 
 maid who judge themselves and their neighbors 
 by rule and not by heart. 
 
 And, of course, rightly or wrongly, Jim loved 
 the girl how could he help it? 
 
 So conscientious a nature as Jemima's could 
 not long permit its possessor to remain idle, and 
 
48 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 under these brighter auspices she soon procured 
 reasonably well-paid employment in a down 
 town store; and great was her delight and en 
 thusiasm when, seated with him in the little 
 parlor one Saturday night, she offered Jim her 
 first week's wages intact. 
 
 "Here is the first installment of my board 
 bill, Jim," she cried gayly. 
 
 "No, no! I can not have it so, dear!" he ex 
 claimed ; " It would look too much like accepting 
 a reward for the small service I have been en 
 abled by good fortune to render you, and for 
 which I have already been a thousand times re 
 paid by the exquisite pleasures you, yourself, 
 have added to my humble life and home." 
 
 "But, it is right that you should take it, Jim; 
 where would I be today and what might not be 
 my hopeless fate but for you? I should be an 
 ingrate indeed if I did not insist upon your tak 
 ing all I earned. Come, please, do take it ! you 
 hurt me very much by refusing ; I cannot accept 
 charity, even from you, after the temporary 
 necessity has passed I should loathe myself 
 and loathe you, too, if I did so!" 
 
 Astounded by the vehemence and agony of 
 her insistence, Jim hesitated; but quickly re 
 gaining his firmness of purpose, he turned 
 sadly towards her and, drinking in all her sweet 
 ness and beauty with eyes in which love and 
 
m 
 
 J EMIMA 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 49 
 
 despair fought with pride, took both her hands 
 in his and said: 
 
 "No, Jemima, it can not be; I could never, 
 under any circumstances, accept money from 
 a woman such as you unless either she was 
 already related to me by the ties of blood or 
 else expected soon to be related still more closely 
 to me by the ties of marriage ; and for the latter 
 blessing, dearly as I love you and I love you 
 with an adoration that has fed upon the very 
 need of hiding itself from you I know I can 
 not hope." 
 
 Her eyelids drooped beneath his suddenly 
 impassioned gaze; the red blood's flame (na 
 ture's badge of both woman's modesty and 
 woman's shame) mounted furiously to her fore- 
 head; and dropping to her knees before his 
 chair like a clinging child, she hid her face on 
 his breast and lay there sighing convulsively 
 in slow, choking sobs. 
 
 Frightened and taken completely off his 
 guard by her unexpected actions, he could not 
 suppress his passion, and held her close, as 
 though he felt that any parting now must be 
 forever. 
 
 Soon her sobbing died away, and, raising 
 her tearful eyes to his, she spoke: 
 
 "Ah! Jim, you cannot know how I have 
 longed and prayed for this! Oh, the delicious 
 
50 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 ecstasy which overwhelmed me when I first 
 thought you seemed to care for me, and the 
 dreariness that settled on my heart when I as 
 sured myself that you could not! For I have 
 loved you always, from the very beginning, and 
 shall always love you till the very end. You 
 say that you love me; then, why can you never 
 hope to marry me ? I do not understand. ' ' 
 
 He bowed his head over hers in mental an 
 guish for several minutes ere he could command 
 his voice, and his tones shook with uncontroll 
 able emotion as he replied: 
 
 ''Can you not see, dearest? you must see 
 the utter impossibility of it all the insurmount 
 able barrier that neither greatness, wealth nor 
 truest worth can shatter down the dark and 
 cruel curse of birth with which a supposedly 
 merciful Gk>d has clouded my horizon, forever 
 dooming me from the blameless cradle to the 
 welcome grave ! Of what advantage worth while 
 to me now were fame or fortune, even could I 
 aspire to their achievement, if you must still 
 be withheld from me? If ever a man was 
 tempted to 'curse his God and die,' I am that 
 man! And all this miraged happiness, all these 
 sleepless dreams, are given me now by a dia 
 bolical Fate but to lift my spirit to such ethereal 
 heights that the consummate cruelty of its 
 eventual fall must freeze the bloodless marrow 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 51 
 
 of the arch field himself to contemplate! The 
 tears of all the downtrodden of the earth for 
 ages immemorable, the pleas for mercy of all 
 the damned in hell, nor the prayers of all the 
 saints in Heaven to the end of time, can not 
 wash out my stain! And that it should be I, 
 innocent of any wrong to man or woman or 
 child and guiltless in the eyes of Heaven, who 
 must bear this brand, like an ineradicable mark 
 of Cain! 0, it is terrible! maddening! Too 
 horrible to believe or realize! I shall go mad, 
 mad, mad!" 
 
 Trembling like a leaf in his arms, Jemima 
 tried to stem this torrent of invective rushing 
 from his breaking heart by twining her arms 
 about his neck and placing her lips to his with 
 an unreasoning and impulsive instinct to kiss 
 his pain away. As he ceased she slid from his 
 embrace and arose to her feet. Holding him 
 at arm's length with both hands upon his breast, 
 she looked him in the face wonderingly and 
 fearfully. 
 
 "What is this dreadful thing of which you 
 speak and how does it prevent us and deny our 
 right to the happiness we seek in each other? 
 Be quick; I cannot bear this suspense!" 
 
 "Must I say it, then? The bare words them 
 selves will seem as cold and meaningless beside 
 their awful purport as does the marble tomb 
 
52 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 above the wreckage of the gnawing worms it 
 hides when we but think upon the living maj 
 esty of death. It is the curse of color! I cannot 
 marry you, dear heart, because of the simple 
 fact that you are white and I am black. Legal 
 or illegal, I do not believe in miscegenation. ' ' 
 
 "Oh! thank God!" With tears of mingled 
 joy and pity she took his face between her 
 hands, and, with warm blushes mantling on her 
 neck and cheeks and forehead, stood confused 
 and shy before him. 
 
 "Thank God for what?" he cried. 
 
 "For giving me the power to break your bar 
 rier with a single word I am not white; I am 
 an octoroon." 
 
 As when some spirit doomed while on this 
 earth to inhabit the mortal body of a poor and 
 halting and ungifted being, bursts its bonds at 
 death, and, rising first in new, uncertain flight 
 on wings grown weak from long disuse, whirls 
 suddenly and takes its swift and certain way 
 through countless angel hosts straight to the 
 awaiting God-Head, so these two loving, humble 
 hearts, relieved from doubt and fasting, rushed 
 rapturously into Love's Elysian Fields to pluck 
 the .fruit and flowers of soulful fancy waiting 
 for them there. 
 
 How they were betrothed; how they over 
 came the legal obstacle of their being, both of 
 
JIM AND JEMIMA 53 
 
 them, under age, through the appointment by 
 the probate court of a guardian for each 
 of them, who gave consent to their immedi 
 ate marriage; how they were married quietly 
 and lived together in that true happiness 
 and thrift which a fond eagerness to outdo 
 each other in mutual helpfulness and a 
 genuine hunger for ambitious correlated la 
 bors, alone can bring; and how they kept to the 
 old house until it was burned over their heads 
 in the fire of 1874, and then started life afresh 
 on " Goose Island, " where we find them so 
 snugly established at the commencement of this 
 tale : is not essential to the completeness of my 
 story, and so is better stated undetailed. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FOUNDLING 
 
 UPPER is all ready and on the 
 table, Jim; come right in and sit 
 down; just wash your hands quick 
 at the sink and don't wait a minute 
 to change your clothes, or it will 
 get cold. I've got such a nice, fat, 
 young chicken it's fine 1 I can hardly keep my 
 knife out of it; and such corn best I ever 
 bought or raised, and so cheap! It isn't ' tur 
 key' weather, and so we can't have cranberry 
 sauce with the chicken, the way you like it, but 
 I've brought out one of those little glass jars 
 of my own preserved currants I was saving for 
 company, and we'll just eat it up all by our 
 selves. Now you bring in the potatoes while 
 I get the pot and pour the coffee, and we'll have 
 it right at first, with the meat. It'll liven you 
 up so and make the whole meal taste so good. 
 There was there ever such a comfortable 
 couple?" 
 
 They sat down at either side of their small 
 but bountifully spread table, and Jemima in 
 clined her head as Jim, folding his hands rev- 
 
 54 
 
THE FOUNDLING 55 
 
 erently above the spotless cloth in a childlike 
 simplicity, prayed aloud softly: 
 
 "Our Father, who looketh down on many 
 homes, filled alike by those who know Thee and 
 by those who know Thee not; whose care pro 
 videth for all who seek Thy ways with contrite 
 hearts; whose Mercy sheddeth abundance on 
 the erring ones in sweet forgiveness, too; raise 
 Thou the lowly from the dust and help the 
 hungry and the sad. For thy munificence to us 
 for Thy kind lending of Thy guiding hand 
 take Thou our gratitude and trust. Amen." 
 
 As Jim closed his prayer and sat for a mo 
 ment with transfigured face, Jemima quietly 
 arose and kissed him and the supper was begun 
 in silence. Presently Jim spoke. 
 
 "Well, dear, I know of no further blessing 
 we could covet now unless it be the pattering 
 of little feet and the sight of little, living images 
 of ourselves about our board. That is our only 
 cross, and sometimes I think it is all so for a 
 purpose and that the Lord will show us in His 
 own good way and time why this gift we crave 
 is still withheld from us. I have a premonition 
 call if fanciful if you will that we shall not 
 be alone here much longer. " 
 
 "O, Jim!" ejaculated his wife in supersti 
 tious awe. 
 
 Supper over, Jemima cleared the table and 
 
56 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 washed the dishes and silver while her husband 
 stepped into their tiny bedroom to change his 
 clothes or "to dress, " as the English call it. 
 Half an hour afterwards they were both seated 
 in the living room at the front of the house, 
 in quiet, peaceful content, Jim smoking his post 
 prandial pipe over the daily paper and Jemima 
 with her work-basket on the floor beside her, 
 darning and mending like a breathing auto 
 maton. Later in the evening the lamps were 
 turned low and the windows thrown wide open 
 to let in the cool, dew-laden autumn breeze. 
 Jim lay back in his chair and rocked slowly, 
 in tune to the plaintive airs Jemima drew from 
 the small melodeon (that instrument which 
 lends itself so readily to hymns and so reluct 
 antly to dance music). 
 
 The silvery light of the full, white moon dif 
 fused a soft refulgence through the open case 
 ments, its narrowed rays penetrating the inte 
 rior gloom and falling straight upon an engrav 
 ing of the "Madonna and Child, " which it 
 bathed in a celestial glory. Out into the "qui 
 etude of the vast, care-dispelling night" drifted 
 the soothing words and low, sweet notes of a 
 clear and sympathetic voice as Jemima sang, 
 her fingers lightly pressing the unseen keys, 
 an old, simple school-song: 
 
THE FOUNDLING 57 
 
 "Oh, the south wind comes with perfumed breath 
 
 From out the woodland hills; 
 And it fans my cheek and it kisses the flowers, 
 
 And the willow's branches fills." 
 
 Fall soon faded into winter, and the days 
 passed quickly with them in the same unevent 
 ful, yet never-monotonous routine of their well- 
 rounded lives. It was now the night before 
 Christmas, and the snow lay deep on all the 
 sleeping flowers of their little garden and was 
 heaped high on either side where Jim had shov 
 eled a path from the gate to the front door, but 
 all was warm and snug within the cottage. Out 
 side the snow still fell in blinding whiteness, 
 the hurrying, persistent, yet never-colliding 
 flakes gleaming like myriad shooting stars 
 across the little misty trapezoidal panes of glass 
 protecting the flickering lights of the lamp 
 posts. Jim and Jemima had just returned from 
 a Christmas Eve entertainment at a " poor peo 
 ple V church over on the " mainland " which 
 they often attended and where, tonight, they 
 had unostensively contributed for more than 
 their share to the presents for the children gath 
 ered there, and had entered gayly into the spirit 
 of the Yuletide, bedecking the great tree and 
 enjoying the little ones' eager expectancy and 
 fulfilled delights in a way many childless people 
 seem to have of " propitiating the storks." 
 
58 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Jim stirred up the fire in the kitchen stove, 
 which in ordinarily cold weather did duty for 
 the whole house, and producing a long bottle 
 from some mysterious source, filled two glasses 
 with ruddy wine and handed one, with mock 
 gallantry, to Jemima. 
 
 "Let us drink, dear heart, " said he, "to 
 hale old Saint Nicholas, the greatest friend of 
 childhood, the patron saint of both rich and 
 poor; at whose shrine the highest and the 
 lowliest bend the knee with the offerings of 
 loving-kindness, as unconsciously and as 
 surely, to this day, as did the shepherds, the 
 wise men and the kings two thousand years ago 
 when they followed the Star of Bethlehem to 
 the Christ-child's humble manger-cradle and 
 laid their gifts in gladness at his feet. He who 
 would destroy by cold and vulgar reasoning 
 this imaginative, legendary belief and custom, 
 filled as it is with all the everlasting qualities 
 that adhere to it from the basic truth of its 
 origin in the poetic and beautiful story of the 
 birth of Chirst, would take from men that one 
 sweet touch of nature which makes all the 
 world akin and rob their children of an inno 
 cent earthly heaven; for Christmas is Love's 
 birthday. " 
 
 "I wonder what Santa Claus will bring us 
 tonight, Jim," laughed Jemima. "I looked up 
 
THE FOUNDLING 59 
 
 the chimney this evening and I'm sure I saw 
 his red nose, and he couldn 't have a better night 
 for sleighing. " 
 
 "If you hear his reindeers ' bells jingling 
 on our roof be sure and wake me, so I can see 
 if he looks like you, Jim," she added mischiev 
 ously, and with a knowing wink. 
 
 There came a muffled knock on the house- 
 door. 
 
 "Listen, Jim, I bet that's old Santa Glaus 
 himself! You wait here till I tiptoe out and sur 
 prise him," cried Jemima. 
 
 "Bring him in if he's out there and we'll 
 hold up his pack," he returned laughingly; "he 
 don't get away without leaving us an extra fine 
 present this time!" 
 
 She opened the door softly and peeked out; 
 but seeing no one, called: "Who is there?" No 
 answer. She called again without result. 
 
 Closing the door, she returned to the kitchen, 
 where Jim was patiently waiting, confident the 
 knocker would prove to be only some neighbor 
 running in to exchange Christmas news and 
 greetings. 
 
 "Who was it!" he asked her. 
 
 "It is strange. There was no one outside," 
 she replied; "yet I'm sure I heard a knock 
 didn't you hear itf " 
 
 "Yes ; if it were Hallowe'en night instead of 
 
60 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Christmas Eve, I would think it was some small 
 boy playing tricks on us; but at this season of 
 the year no." 
 
 They returned to their usual occupations still 
 wondering and were about to undress for bed, 
 when suddenly the knocking was repeated, this 
 time distinct and emphatic. 
 
 1 1 There it is again! " they exclaimed in uni 
 son. 
 
 "You go to the door, Jim," faltered his wife, 
 "I'm afraid. Maybe it's a burglar, though 
 burglars don't generally announce their pres 
 ence so openly, do they?" 
 
 He put down the lamp he had just taken up 
 and, walking firmly to the door, threw it open 
 its full width and stood boldly relieved against 
 the light from the kitchen ; so that anyone hid 
 ing without could not have failed to see him 
 plainly. 
 
 "Who are you? Show up there, sir!" he 
 shouted sharply. Not a soul was in sight; the 
 cold, dark void gave back no answer to his de 
 mand. He turned around to Jemima, who had 
 followed him. 
 
 "I don't like this at all; it is getting too 
 ghostly for me there is something wrong about 
 it," said he; "if we hear anything more of it 
 I'll get my gun and investigate further." 
 
 Annoyed and mystified and their nerves af- 
 
THE FOUNDLING 6 1 
 
 fected to a greater degree that they cared to 
 acknowledge even to each other, they finally put 
 out the light and retired. 
 
 Jemima always slept very lightly, and about 
 one o'clock in the morning she was awakened 
 by a slight, intermittent noise, as if a child 
 were crying. She got up and hastily donned a 
 wrapper; and throwing an apron over her head, 
 she felt her way cautiously about the house in 
 the dark, trying to trace the sounds, which 
 would start and then stop again. They led 
 her to the small front-door vestibule ; and, satis 
 fied that they proceeded from some source with 
 out the house, she at last summoned up enough 
 courage to turn the key and draw the bolt of 
 the outer door and pull it open just a crack. 
 The noise then became clearly audible, and was 
 plainly the voice of a very young babe. 
 
 Emboldened by the innocent cause of the dis 
 turbance and now thoroughly aroused to action, 
 she walked deliberately out in her bare feet, 
 and at the foot of the steps, where it was hid 
 den from view behind a snow-bank as the path 
 curved to the left, stumbled against a dark, 
 woolen bundle from which there immediately 
 arose a feeble cry of fretfulness and affright. 
 Shading her eyes with her hand, she stooped 
 over and mechanically picked it up, her heart 
 beating wildly at the suddenness and shock of 
 
62 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 her discovery. Looking carefully about for any 
 one who might have been guilty of leaving any 
 living thing to such a fate, she held it tenderly 
 to her bosom a minute; then ran with it up the 
 steps and into the house, where her husband, 
 disquieted by the cold draft through the open 
 door, had awakened in alarm and now rushed 
 dazedly to meet her. 
 
 They carried it into the kitchen, lit the lamp 
 in feverish haste, threw off the lid of the little 
 stove to let out more heat, and then carefully 
 unwrapped the bundle. Whence Jemima, with 
 a scared, white face and trembling hands, drew 
 slowly forth a poor, little, half -frozen baby, who 
 opened his eyes and stared at them in mute 
 surprise and then cried feebly. 
 
 Jim and Jemima were stricken mute with 
 horror and pity, and for a time neither could 
 find tongue to utter the thoughts that held them 
 enthralled, but stood and gaped at each other 
 in mutual confusion. Then came the reanima- 
 tion of their reason, and, without a word or the 
 waste of a minute, they set to work rubbing its 
 hands and feet, arms and face, Jemima holding 
 it on her lap, close to the stove, while her hus 
 band rapidly warmed a tin cupful of milk. This 
 the infant at first could take but gingerly, in lit 
 tle sips, looking up enquiringly into the faces 
 of his new acquaintances between swallows ; but 
 
THE FOUNDLING 63 
 
 gradually becoming comfortably " thawed out," 
 he soon attacked it with an avidity which spoke 
 worlds for the wonderful power of resuscitation 
 of infancy. 
 
 The baby, a boy, appeared to be about a year 
 and a half old and was warmly dressed, though 
 in clothes he had nearly outgrown. Whoever 
 left him in his perilous position had at least 
 taken considerable pains to keep him from 
 danger of freezing. After the judicious intro 
 duction into his little "tummie" of the warm 
 milk, he promptly fell fast asleep; and but par 
 tially undressing him, as he had brought no 
 personal baggage with him and they had not the 
 ghost of a " nigh tie " to put him in, they laid 
 him sadly and fondly on their own bed. 
 
 As they did so Jemima felt something cold 
 and metallic fall against the back of her hand. 
 Reaching down, she lifted up the links of a 
 finely wrought gold necklace fastened around 
 his neck. Pendant from this necklace was a 
 small heart-shaped gold locket upon one side 
 of which blazed a half-carat ruby of blood-red 
 lustre, whose preservation seemed to disprove 
 any motive of cupidity on the part of those who 
 might have been his kidnapers. Astounded 
 anew, she held up the locket to the radiance 
 from the kitchen lamp and at Jim's suggestion 
 
64 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 pried it open; when out dropped a tightly folded 
 piece of white paper. 
 
 They covered the sleeping babe gently and, 
 carrying this paper to the lamp, silently un 
 folded it. And there they read upon it, written 
 in a woman's hand that wavered over the open 
 ing words but became quite firm before the 
 message ended: "This baby is a ' natural' and 
 will never be reclaimed by me." It was evi 
 dently a case of deliberate, premeditated child- 
 abandonment; yet they wondered at the cruelty 
 of a mother who could indite so damning a note 
 about her own offspring. 
 
 Going back to the child, they detached the 
 chain and locket from his neck and brought 
 them also to the light, to look them over for 
 any possible marks of identification. The chain 
 divulged no secrets of its past. The inside of 
 the locket was fitted with a glass in each half, 
 one of these encasing a lock of yellow hair, the 
 other framing another lock, both coarse and 
 black. There were no other evidences of individ 
 uality. They carefully replaced the written 
 note inside the locket, reclasped its chain about 
 the slumbering baby's neck and came away. 
 
 There was no sleep for them that night. 
 Through the long hours, besieged by alternating 
 hopes and doubts and ruled by conflicting emo 
 tions, they struggled with their new, strange 
 
THE FOUNDLING 65 
 
 problem. The sunless Christmas dawn found 
 them on their knees in prayerful supplication 
 to their Heavenly Father to teach their hearts 
 aright his hidden will and lead them safely on, 
 in this their fresh and awful accountability. 
 
 Not for one moment, however, did they 
 dream of turning over the child to the cold 
 claims of any of the city's charitable institu 
 tions " devoted " to the care of deserted chil 
 dren those travesties on home where bodies 
 may be fed but hearts are starved. They would, 
 of course, notify the police department and 
 newspapers; so that if by any possibility the 
 child had been feloniously taken from his par 
 ents, he might be restored to them at once; but 
 in their own hearts they both feared and hoped 
 that such was not the case. 
 
 With the coming of day their minds grew 
 clearer and less subject to useless anxieties and 
 forebodings and their spirits in a measure re 
 vived. They began to enthuse more over the 
 agreeable probabilities of the situation, as one 
 always does when busy action can be made to 
 take the place of idle worry. Jemima looked 
 at her husband's woe-begone face, and was sud 
 denly struck with the ludicrousness of its ex 
 pression and the humorousness of their predica 
 ment; she burst out in a shame-faced laugh. 
 
 1 1 Cheer up, Jim, I guess the baby must have 
 
66 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 been intended for our Christmas present," she 
 ventured, "and Santa Glaus never takes back 
 his presents, you know. It would make him out, 
 as the children say, an 'injun giver/ and I'm 
 sure he wouldn't relish that mysterious stigma. 
 
 "The poor little waif is very dark darker 
 much than I am, and is to all appearances a 
 colored child; so there could be no impropriety 
 in our keeping him, at least until we can learn 
 the truth about those who have so cruelly cast 
 him off." 
 
 "I am beginning to love him already," she 
 whispered, her poor starved mother-heart cry 
 ing out against their lives' barrenness of child 
 hood's charms. 
 
 Jim brightened perceptively, but, manlike, 
 he hesitated, trying to reason out in his mind 
 in advance, more rationally and closely, the 
 effects of any action they might take. Jemima 
 waited, but as he did not speak, she slyly added : 
 
 "Don't you remember what you said last 
 autumn ? ' ' 
 
 No what was it?" 
 
 "I am afraid it is a presumptuous and sacri 
 legious thing to say, but I believe you spoke 
 more prophetically than you knew when you 
 said: 'I have a premonition call it fanciful 
 if you will that we shall not be alone here 
 much longer!' " 
 
THE FOUNDLING 67 
 
 i i That settles it, Jemima; thank you for re 
 membering. I am willing, and I can see that 
 you are more than willing, to take up this prec 
 ious burden of love and delicate responsibility 
 which seems sent to us by heaven; and at such 
 a time as this the beautiful memory of our 
 Savior as a babe himself serves as a call to us, 
 to bid us keep in mind the Bible's loving ad 
 monition, 'He saith unto you, feed my sheep/ 
 
 Together they passed into the room where 
 lay the baby, still in rosy slumber and all un 
 aware of the overshadowing crisis of his little 
 life. As they gazed upon him a mist appeared 
 to gather before their eyes, wet with the tears 
 of new desire and a solemn joy and pity. And 
 there they stood; and Jemima, twining her arms 
 around her husband 's neck, rested her head 
 confidingly upon his broad shoulder and said, 
 simply, "Yes, little darling, we will keep you, 
 and, oh! we'll love you, too." 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 IN WHICH LIFE CHANGES ITS ASPECT 
 TO SEVERAL PERSONS 
 
 HIS Christmas day having fallen 
 on Saturday, there was no work 
 to be done outside the house un 
 til the following Monday, and 
 Jim and Jemima had ample time 
 to learn to accommodate their 
 old habits to the new order of things. It all 
 seemed to come to them so naturally that they 
 were surprised at themselves. 
 
 Outside, a late-rising sun dispelled the snow- 
 clouds. Life began to take on a brighter hue, 
 and they found many delicious confidences to 
 impart to each other about the new arrival in 
 "the family. " When the babe awoke and 
 smiled in perfect faith at them with his fawn- 
 like eyes and kiss-compelling lips, they were 
 delighted; and when they fed him awkwardly 
 and he broke out in a laughing, healthy coo, they 
 could no longer contain their pleasurably ex 
 citement, but hugged and kissed him in utter 
 abandonment. They were like two children with 
 a new and wonderful mechanical toy. Every 
 thing about the house took on new meaning in 
 
 68 
 
LIFE CHANGES ITS ASPECT 69 
 
 its relation to the new member of the family 
 who must now be considered; and it seemed to 
 them that never before had the sun shone so 
 brightly, the fire given such home-like, toasty 
 warmth, nor the food been so palatable and im 
 portant. 
 
 On the afternoon of the same day Jim went 
 to the nearest police station and notified the 
 precinct captain of what had happened to them. 
 The latter individual was very much taken up 
 with his own holiday plans and evinced but a 
 languid interest in the affair, saying such things 
 were common enough. If there was any hurry 
 about it he would send over a roundsman to 
 take the foundling away to some public institu 
 tion or other in an hour or so, though he was 
 short of men today as he had allowed every 
 officer he could spare to go home to his wife and 
 children for the Christmas celebration. Jim 
 listened with a beating heart, and was much 
 relieved in mind when he learned that they did 
 not have to give up the child at once. He said 
 there was no hurry, and the captain looked 
 pleased. 
 
 All hands being suited, Jim then bought the 
 good-natured minion of the law a big cigar, and 
 they "parted f rinds, " as the Irish officer ex 
 pressed it, he being glad to be temporarily re 
 prieved from a disagreeable duty. Jim escaped 
 
70 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 from the smelly station feeling like a man who 
 had just been told of a fortune to which he had 
 fallen heir through the "convenient" demise of 
 a hitherto-unheard-of and rather mythical old 
 uncle. Boarding a cityward passing car, he 
 visited the local rooms of the few daily news 
 papers then in circulation in Chicago, and re 
 ported the finding of the child on the night be 
 fore, arranging at the same time for the inser 
 tion of an advertisement in the t ' lost and found ' ' 
 and personal columns of each, describing the 
 child, and so forth. With awakening paternal 
 care he stopped on his way home at the house 
 of his family physician and laughingly invited 
 him to call and open a school of instruction, with 
 himself and wife as neophytes, in the proper 
 care and latest improved methods of rearing 
 young ones. 
 
 Great was the astonishment of the Mannings ' 
 neighbors upon opening their papers Sunday 
 morning, to read therein in undubitable print 
 the startling story of the unheralded coming of 
 a "ready made" family to the occupants of the 
 little brick cottage, entirely without the sanc 
 tion of "the storks." And many and various 
 were their comments thereon. By noon there 
 was quite a steady stream of men and women 
 knocking at the cottage door, some calling upon 
 the transparent pretext of extending belated 
 
LIFE CHANGES ITS ASPECT 71 
 
 Christmas greetings, others openly curious in 
 their anxiety to ' l get a good look at it. ' ' Even 
 the children caught the infection of interested 
 curiosity; and in their endeavors to "spy out" 
 the little baby Santa Glaus really and truly 
 brought down the chimney after carrying it all 
 that way in his sleigh, they soon had the cot 
 tage windows all around worn nearly clear of 
 frost by their little hot noses and nimbly-rub 
 bing fingers. 
 
 They argued spiritedly among themselves 
 for and against the admissibility of this sup 
 position, the youngest ones being invariably 
 for and the older ones against it; until Jim 
 himself being appealed to as their " umpire,*' 
 completely routed the scoffers by solemnly 
 avowing that old Santa had certainly brought 
 it, in a gorgeous red sleigh drawn by eight tiny 
 reindeer all covered with snow and bells, and 
 had graciously asked them, right to their faces, 
 to accept it as their Christmas gift from him, 
 he having brought it straight down from 
 Heaven not half an hour before he reached the 
 cottage. This caused considerable laughter 
 among some of the visiting * ' grown-ups, ' ' while 
 others of them looked aside and by their slight 
 nods of approval and moistening eyes showed 
 their understanding of and sympathy in the 
 loving and innocent deception. 
 
72 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Altogether, it was a great day .for "Goose 
 Island, " and the oldest inhabitant there, still 
 to this day, chews on it as a choice morsel of 
 history, with which she is ever ready to regale 
 one upon the slimmest provocation or excuse. 
 
 The doctor came in the afternoon, and upon 
 examination pronounced their little god a per 
 fectly healthy and unusually bright and pretty 
 specimen, and opined that he showed little or 
 no effect of his "airy trip with St. Nicholas. " 
 The infant himself had no doubts on the sub 
 ject, and discovering one of his bare feet as they 
 undressed him, immediately appropriated it, 
 with a vastly selfish assumption of possession, 
 and promptly put it in his mouth; then grinned, 
 much to the edification of his assembled admir 
 ers. And so the day passed and the quiet win 
 ter night came on. 
 
 Jim and Jemima put the baby between them 
 in the bed, each jealously guarding him with a 
 gently caressing hand, and, tired out at last 
 by the day's stirring experiences, floated hap 
 pily down the river of enchanted visions into 
 the Land of Nod, 
 
 "Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
 About him and lies down to pleasant dreams." 
 
 ****** 
 
 Ten short years have passed away. In due 
 course the child was legally adopted by them, 
 
LIFE CHANGES ITS ASPECT 73 
 
 and, as he grew to the age of perception, was 
 taught to regard them as his natural parents. 
 He developed a tender, clinging disposition, and 
 was never so happy as when following and help 
 ing Jemima about the little house and garden 
 or riding in the wagon with Jim, 
 
 "And the child grew in stature and wisdom and grace, 
 And the light of intelligence lit up his face." 
 
 On his sixth birthday he entered the public 
 graded school across the river, there being none 
 on the "Island," and mingled with the children 
 of the surrounding neighborhoods. He learned 
 rapidly, evidencing a mind as quick and bright 
 as that of any white child in his classes, and at 
 eleven years of age he was in what is now called 
 the eighth (the highest) grade of the common 
 schools and was the youngest scholar in his 
 class. In those early days the school-room desks 
 and wooden benches were of common pine 
 painted green, and were double, the two seat- 
 mates of each being physically withheld from 
 too close communion with each other by a semi 
 circular hole cut in the middle of their joint 
 seat. There was not even sex segregation, but 
 girls and boys, white or black, were assigned 
 desks together promiscuously. Not until the 
 pupils entered high-school were single desks and 
 sex segregation provided and enforced. 
 
 With their new incentive to greater effort 
 
74 ERIC MAEOTTE 
 
 and ambition, Jim and Jemima prospered more 
 and more, in a plodding way, and the former 
 had now quite a fair-sized paint and paper 
 store of his own and employed skilled workmen 
 on his more important contracts. 
 
 The simplicity and religious earnestness of 
 their lives remained unchanged, however, and 
 the sunny, cheery atmosphere of their home, 
 their firm but unselfish treatment of the child, 
 and the qualities of gallantry, honesty and 
 bravery and the love of the beautiful, which 
 they constantly inculcated in him, made his 
 early existence a far more ideal one than gener 
 ally falls to the lot of even rich men's sons. In 
 a word, they made themselves noble and happy 
 by making him so. 
 
 Long years afterward when these, his foster- 
 parents, had gone 
 
 . . . to join 
 
 The innumerable caravan that moves, 
 To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
 His chamber in the silent halls of death," 
 
 the sweet and sacred memory of their personal 
 devotion and their yearning sympathy with his 
 every mood and dawning emulation, came back 
 to him in many a quiet hour with a sustaining 
 and soothing tranquillity, and he felt that in his 
 darkest days of doubt and trial and sorrow, no 
 matter when or how they might arise or come, 
 he could ever withdraw in silence from the liv- 
 
LIFE CHANGES ITS ASPECT 75 
 
 ing and hold heart-eased communion with these 
 two, his living dead. 
 
 He had been christened "John," because 
 "by the grace of God" he was sent to them to 
 fill their hungry hearts with his childhood's 
 love and beauty. 
 
 During his attendance at the common school 
 and up to the time of his entrance into high- 
 school, his color had passed without comment, 
 derogatory or otherwise, as he was a favorite 
 with both the grown people and the children 
 about him, all of whom knew and respected him. 
 With the unwritten democracy of childhood, he 
 was accepted and sought after by the best of 
 the boys and girls, who, having grown up with 
 him, never gave the disparity of his race a 
 thought. Nevertheless, when he graduated from 
 the neighborhood school and took up his further 
 studies at the old "Central High School," situ 
 ated in an altogether different locality (near 
 West Monroe and Halsted streets), and where 
 he was almost a stranger to the advanced schol 
 ars around him, he sensed a perceptible chang 
 ing of conditions and noticed, at first in inno 
 cent wonder and then with quickening shame, 
 that many of the boys, and especially of the 
 girls, began to hold themselves aloof from him. 
 Outside the old Gothic, cathedral-style, rough- 
 stone, high-school building, with its antiquated 
 
76 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 windows protected by small diamond-shaped 
 panes of glass innumerable even, sometimes, 
 on the adjacent play-grounds, certain scholars 
 affected not to see him; and occasionally he 
 would overhear in passing some slurring re 
 mark about "colored presumption" or "fresh 
 nigger boy." 
 
 Deeply hurt at heart by this cruel, if callow, 
 ostracism and unthinking snobbishness, he was 
 yet too proud, too ashamed, and too fearful of 
 paining their loving hearts and unselfish na 
 tures, to speak of it to his foster-parents ; and 
 they to whom he should naturally have gone for 
 comfort and philosophical strength in this, his 
 first great despair, were, as yet, unconscious of 
 his particular and psychological need of them. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE QUARREL 
 
 HEBE was one boy, the son of a well- 
 to-do West side butcher and a 
 leader in the school's out-door 
 sports, though of a slow and inat 
 tentive mind in his studies, who, 
 gradually, becoming bolder by rea 
 son of John's quiet ignoring of his 
 veiled taunts, grew openly insulting, and made 
 himself more obnoxious to him than all the 
 others. They belonged in the same classes, hav 
 ing taken the same course, and it exasperated 
 this bumptious youth to know that John was 
 usually at the head of each class and he at its 
 foot. It was his surly and often-aired opinion 
 that "no d d dirty little nigger could pos 
 sibly have brains enough to outstrip all the 
 white boys and girls, and he couldn't have done 
 it unless he cheated." Some of the scholars 
 laughed indifferently at his occasional tirades 
 on the subject and reminded him that he would, 
 no doubt, still continue to stick to the bottom 
 of the class (as a sort of foundation "block 
 head") whether John remained with them or 
 not; others looked pained, and flushed at the 
 
 77 
 
78 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 injustice and indelicacy of his remarks. But 
 John, who was purposely and maliciously forced 
 to overpass this distressing cant of caste and 
 11 color line" through its frequent utterance 
 in his immediate presence, though never ad 
 dressed directly to him, felt at first stunned 
 and helpless. 
 
 Now, as it has been proved to be a fallacious 
 conclusion that an innocent person wrongly ac 
 cused of a crime suffers less, upheld by his own 
 conscious rectitude, than does one who is right 
 ly accused; but that, on the contrary, the shame 
 of his unfortunate condition is the more intensi 
 fied by his horror of being considered capable 
 of an act from which every fibre of his being 
 would naturally recoil; while the real guilty 
 criminal, perhaps long crime-hardened, thinks 
 only of escaping through well-worn technicali 
 ties and ample perjury the lawful punishment 
 that should by right be meted out to him, and 
 wastes little or no energy of trepidation on 
 either remorse or his future standing in the 
 community and social scale so poor John, a 
 child in years and with few of the sustaining 
 aphorisms of maturer years as yet reduced by 
 him to helpful practice, took to heart these 
 racial insults and apostrophisings all the more 
 keenly in his knowledge that they were heaped 
 upon him because of no fault or wrong-doing 
 
THE QUARREL 79 
 
 of his own, but simply on account of an acci 
 dent of descent over which no man had power, 
 and which should have called for pity and not 
 blame on the part of others. 
 
 The secret tears of grief and mortification 
 which he shed, however, bore in time their own 
 sure fruit, as have eventually the tears of the 
 downtrodden and oppressed through all past 
 generations of man, and as they must and will do 
 from century to century while time and man 
 shall last. Because of such tears the world of 
 men is infinitely better to-day than it was three 
 thousand years ago, and will be infinitely bet 
 ter three thousand years from now than it is 
 to-day. For the tears of the poor and uncon- 
 sidered but water and nourish the blossoms of 
 progress; and the longer the repression of so 
 cial and commercial justice, of bona fide legal, 
 and unsubverted political, equality lasts, the 
 surer and greater and more far-reaching will 
 be their final reaction upon those who cannot see 
 ' ' the handwriting upon the wall. ' ' 
 
 This ill-starred son of a butcher was cap 
 tain of the high-school base-ball nine and, in a 
 general way, the bully of the school. He could 
 brook no opposition in his cherished field of 
 sport, and being really athletic and admittedly 
 proficient in that line, to be sure, seldom met 
 with any. His father slaughtered cattle, hogs 
 
80 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 and sheep in a small way and for his own shop 
 supplies, and the boy was sometimes called up 
 on to aid him in the capacity of his assistant. 
 
 Perhaps this early, callousing association 
 with pain and blood-shed in dumb animals made 
 him cruel; perhaps he simply exulted in his 
 natural strength and roughness; but he cer 
 tainly had a habit of throwing a baseball with 
 unnecessary swiftness and violence at short 
 range and laughing when the more unsophisti 
 cated of the boys cried out at the sting it gave 
 their hands or the bumps it gave to the other 
 parts of their anatomy in trying to catch or 
 dodge it. He elected himself, justly enough so 
 far as skill counted, to the position of pitcher 
 in the school nine, and he had 1 1 got onto ' ' some 
 famous curves through his hobnobbing with 
 professional ball players, whose society he 
 much affected. On the whole, he was the boy- 
 wonder of the amateur local diamonds, and he 
 had an ingrowing ambition to become a regu 
 lar member of a professional team as soon as 
 he could induce his father to let him leave 
 school, which he detested anyhow. His euphon 
 ious cognomen was Mr. William Brockhurst 
 Stubbs, Bill Stubbs for short; and his temper 
 was as short as his abbreviated name. 
 
 One bright, hot Saturday afternoon this 
 crack high-school nine and its substitutes and 
 
THE QUARREL 81 
 
 youthful " rooters" and followers, were vali 
 antly foregathered upon the glorious field of 
 Olympian contentions commonly known as 
 "Old Man Perkins' Lot," a vacant block about 
 half a mile west and south of the school, and 
 whose rickety wooden fence all around the four 
 sides, gave to it some semblance of a full-fledged 
 ball-park where an admission fee is charged. 
 
 They were there to meet and ignobly van 
 quish a rival ball club called the "Dirty Stock 
 ings," whose very tough and unsavory reputa 
 tion had undoubtedly greatly assisted them in 
 reaching the proud and exalted station of 
 "champeens" of all West side juvenile nines. 
 Two things at least, about them, were immedi 
 ately apparent, even to a casual observer of 
 their usual field tactics they assuredly were 
 not "gentlemen" and they certainly could play 
 ball. 
 
 John now "held down" first base in the 
 high- school aggregation, even Captain Stubbs 
 being compelled to acknowledge that the school 
 could produce no one capable of successfully 
 replacing him. This brought him, of course, 
 into close relations with young Stubbs when 
 he occupied the pitcher's box; and many a 
 hot throw delivered by the latter with unusual 
 and undue viciousness was stopped by him only 
 by exhibiting quick dexterity and coolness. 
 
82 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 The game this Saturady afternoon was hotly 
 contested with varying fortunes; until in the 
 ninth inning, amid the encouraging and vilify 
 ing shout, roars and hoots of the crowd, now 
 largely swelled by curious passers-by and more 
 elderly "fans," the "Dirty Stockings " suc 
 ceeded in tying the score in the first half, with 
 the "Central High" boys yet to take their turn 
 at the plate. An expectant and anxious hush 
 displaced the former uproar as the first batter 
 for the school nine nervously took his stand 
 over the home base, and all eyes were strained 
 upon the infield. Two balls were called on him 
 before the pitcher of the rival team overcame 
 his unsettled nerves and sent the sphere whirl 
 ing in so swiftly as to be almost invisible in 
 its flight. Then came a sharp crack and the bat 
 flew over the ground in broken splinters, while 
 the ball went straight up in the air, and curv 
 ing backward descended directly into the 
 catcher's waiting hands (they had no baseball 
 gloves or mitts in those days). He fumbled it 
 a second but held it safe. 
 
 "One out!" cried the umpire; and cursing 
 his luck and the rotten bat, the crestfallen play 
 er slowly made way for the next man on the 
 batting list. (At this early period in the his 
 tory of amateur baseball the different players 
 were usually called to bat in the regular order 
 
THE QUARREL 83 
 
 of their field positions, commencing at the 
 game's beginning with the catcher, and ending 
 with the left fielder.) 
 
 The catcher still stood well back from the 
 plate, and watching his chance, the second man 
 up deftly bunted the ball down close in front of 
 himself and reached first base on the catcher's 
 overthrow, which finally landed him on second. 
 A safe hit followed and first and third bases 
 were filled, with only one man out. Captain 
 Stubbs' turn at the bat now came, and hun 
 dreds cheered him on; for he held the highest 
 local batting average of the season for all the 
 clubs. Alas! for the instability of youthful 
 vanity; after two tremendous and confident 
 swipes at the ball the doughty captain ignomin- 
 iously struck out, and the air was rent by the 
 cat-calls and exulting shrieks of the " Dirty 
 Stockings' ' friends and sympathizers, many 
 of whom had themselves no stockings at all. 
 
 "Two out!" "Two out!" "Hold 'em down!" 
 "They're rattled!" screamed the impromptu 
 opposition coaches. "John John Manning," 
 cried the huddled and flustered school nine. 
 ' ' For God 's sake, don 't let 'em get you ! " " It 's 
 our last chance!" Pale but quietly he ap 
 proached the slab and stood, like "Horatius at 
 the bridge" ready to lead their forlorn hopes, 
 like Caesar, across the Rubicon from which 
 
84 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 there could now be no honorable turning back. 
 The raucous voice of the "ump" broke the 
 stillness of the awful suspense. 
 
 "One strike" "Tuh!" 
 The catcher approached so close up .behind 
 John that he could feel his quick breath upon 
 the back of his neck. With the last hope of des 
 peration he spat on his hands and rubbed their 
 palms in the dirt, then regrasping the stick like 
 a drowning man clinging to a life preserver, 
 he planted his feet firmly and well apart, 
 straining his muscles for the final whack which 
 he must get in to save the day. He kept his 
 eyes glued to the left hand of the ' ' south-paw ' ' 
 pitcher in the box. Swift as the eagle's flight, 
 it seemed to him, came the ball, directly over 
 the plate ; and swifter yet it rose, and flew in a 
 beautiful straight line clear over rightfield's 
 head, bounding on and on until it reached, and 
 hid under, the farthest fence. 
 
 "Bun, you son of a gun!" "Bun!" "Bun!" 
 "Bun!" "Second base!" "Go it" "Third 
 now" "Third" "No, back!" "Back!" 
 ' ' They Ve got the ball ! " " Oh ; back I tell you ! ' ' 
 1 ' Slide there slide ! " " Look out ! " " 0, they Ve 
 caught him!" 
 
 "Out at third!" yelled the "master of desti 
 nies," and the surging crowd subsided. But 
 
THE QUARREL 85 
 
 John's long drive had brought in both the other 
 men on base and the game was won. 
 
 Proud and perspiring, he picked himself up 
 and ran back to the improvised benches, to 
 meet there the welcoming shouts and fraternal 
 poundings of the balance of his successful 
 team. The school gang grabbed at this oppor 
 tunity for hero-worship, (that enthusiasm so 
 dear to every unspoiled mortal) and lifted him 
 onto a platform of living shoulders, carrying 
 him through the crowd and in triumph down 
 the street, with deafening sounds of victory and 
 acclaim that shamed those of the storied Eoman 
 amphitheatre when all of Gaul was thrall to 
 Caesar. "Veni, vidi, vici!" rang out their 
 classic cry as they filled the air with caps and 
 hats. 
 
 'Tis not a little thing, this early taste of per 
 sonal glory to the young. The pabulum of 
 hero-worship forever fed to their awakening in 
 tellects from every page of history, mayhap 
 needs but the chance incentive of some such 
 lauded deed of momentary importance to kindle 
 into useful fire their dormant passions. The 
 histories of all nations are but a history of their 
 leaders, and a healthy emulation of their com 
 posite example once aroused, may find its ulti 
 mate goal in a future greatness far removed in 
 
86 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 nature from those of dawning manhood's first 
 inspired achievements. 
 
 Yet who can tell in what sweet hour 
 
 Of thoughtless childish fame 
 The immortal spark unnoted fell 
 
 From which the soul took flame? 
 
 Although it escaped John's notice at that 
 exciting time, he remembered on thinking it 
 over afterwards that Bill Stubbs was not 
 among those who congratulated him on his fine 
 play, but was curiously absent from the com 
 pany of the rest of the students during the re 
 mainder of the afternoon. He looked eagerly 
 for him when the class was again assembled in 
 the class-room the following Monday morning, 
 and was surprised to discover him scowling at 
 him over the top of his text book with a glance 
 of malignant hatred. Open and fair-minded 
 himself, he failed to comprehend that adolescent 
 youths (like too many of their elders) are not 
 given to analytical justice in their personal 
 likes and dislikes, and are just as apt to hate 
 their mental, moral or physical superiors, as 
 they are to scorn their inferiors in those differ 
 ing traits ; or to put it plainly, that it is not at 
 all necessary to be wrong in order to be dis 
 liked by certain persons whose natures act in 
 exact reversal of that law of electricity by reason 
 of which like poles repel and unlike poles at 
 tract each other. He could think of nothing he 
 
THE QUARREL 87 
 
 had done to incur any new displeasure on the 
 part of this boy, but knowing his overbearing 
 and intolerant disposition toward himself, he 
 resolved to ask no questions and await his ene 
 my's next move watchfully. He had not long 
 to wait. 
 
 The old "Central High-School, " at that per 
 iod the sole high-school building in Chicago, 
 stood south and directly back of the ancient 
 Scammon School, the former fronting on Mon 
 roe street and the latter on Madison street; so 
 that many of the high-school scholars daily 
 passed through the yard of the Scammon to 
 reach their own school. The grade of both 
 streets had been considerably raised subsequent 
 to the erection of the two edifices, which were 
 among the oldest of their kind in the entire 
 city. Hence it was necessary to go down sev 
 eral steps to get from the sidewalk to either 
 yard. The common school scholars usually 
 went home to luncheon; but the noon recess of 
 the high-school being a short one, in order to 
 permit the teachers to dismiss their classes for 
 the day at the early hour of two-thirty, and the 
 attendant students coming there from all parts 
 of the city instead of from the immediate 
 school district, very few either of the teachers 
 or the students attempted to go liome then, but 
 ate out of the lunch-boxes they brought with 
 
88 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 them or patronized the little bakeshops and 
 restaurants near by on Halsted and Madison 
 streets. Their favorite noon rendezvous was, 
 for a time, a small German "home" bakery 
 and candy and ice cream shop about a block 
 south on Halsted street. In the strawberry sea 
 son its proprietor always had fresh steaming- 
 hot slices of strawberry shortcake of rare ex 
 cellence ready-exposed in tempting array up 
 on his counters at twelve o'clock sharp. (The 
 old high school edifice, erected in 1855, still 
 stands, as substantial and good style as when 
 first built. It is now used as a repair shop and 
 storage house by the Board of Education.) 
 
 The minute the big school bell rang for re 
 cess the boys would snatch their hats, fall down 
 the stairs, bolt into the yard, tumble up the 
 steps onto the sidewalk any way and every 
 way and race diagonally across both streets 
 for this shop, as if the life of every mother's 
 son of them depended upon his reaching those 
 shortcakes ahead of all the rest. The old baker 
 was phlegmatic and of a conservative turn of 
 mind, and rarely ever baked enough cakes to 
 go around, as he had then the present cheap 
 lunch counter owners' economic horror of 
 "left-overs," and would rather disappoint his 
 customers than cook one portion too many. So 
 the first, panting arrivals among the boys 
 
THE QUARREL 89 
 
 would invariably snatch, not one, but two or 
 three portions, and quickly bite a hole in each 
 to dissuade their hungry school-mates from tak 
 ing the surplus away from them by force, as 
 their lawful prizes. 
 
 Many a good-natured slap and scuffle ensued 
 from this original stratagem, but those who got 
 there last on one day were often first on the 
 next, and the trailers of the crowd, as a rule, 
 took the laugh gracefully and filled up on pie 
 or doughnuts, or any other indigestible handy, 
 thus evening up the current stock on hand of 
 the shop much to the secret satisfaction of 
 the baker, who, like most Germans, was "wise 
 in his own generation." 
 
 I have no idea what has become of the little 
 bakery-shop keeper, but I am sure, if he made 
 no imprudent outside investments and if he 
 died before the old high-school was discontin 
 ued, he must have died rich. "Let him E. I. P." 
 
 Promptly at the noon hour on the Monday 
 after the ball game, John started for the bak 
 ery as usual. As he hustled up the steps on 
 to the Monroe street walk he felt his feet trip 
 ped from behind, and he fell forward on his 
 hands. He turned quickly and found Stubbs 
 right back of him. He was sure the latter had 
 tripped him on purpose, but passed the matter 
 off lightly, as simply a practical joke. Stubbs 
 
90 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 bounced into the shop just ahead of him, and 
 John, in accordance with recognized usage, 
 whipped a chunk of short-cake out of the for 
 mer's hand and bit into it; when Stubbs, in a 
 towering rage, wheeled on him and deliberately 
 struck him in the face. Taken completely by 
 surprise by this uncalled-for indignity, John 
 remained immovable for a second, staring at 
 him blankly. Then, the hot blood rising to his 
 forehead under the insult, he seized his would- 
 be enemy by the shoulder and said angrily, 
 but firmly: 
 
 4 'What do you mean by that, you devil ?" 
 "I meant to push your ugly face in, you 
 black thief, I'll teach you to respect your bet 
 ters damn you!" shouted Stubbs. 
 
 Turning deathly white, John looked hur 
 riedly around on the astonished and expectant 
 faces of the crowd of boys no one stirred or 
 spoke. Frenzied then by the memory of all the 
 wrongs he had suffered at the hands of his per 
 sistent insulter, he made an instant leap for 
 Stubbs, and grasping both lapels of his coat, 
 jerked him roughly forward sidelong. The two 
 were standing between the crowd and the door 
 at the moment, and, steeled and blinded by 
 his honest passion, John's attack was so fierce 
 and sudden that his opponent was thrown clear 
 
THE QUARREL 91 
 
 through the doorway and fell head-first and 
 heavily on the stone sidewalk outside. 
 
 John rushed at him again, but Stubbs did 
 not rise. He lay in a huddled heap, senseless 
 and still, with the blood flowing from a deep 
 cut over his brow. 
 
 The other boys, who had pushed out after 
 the combatants, stood gaping at the silent, un- 
 moving form in stupefied inaction. John was 
 the first to regain the full use of his senses. 
 Sobered and alarmed by the unanticipated re 
 sult of the fight, he called to the others to come 
 and help him, and together they lifted his fallen 
 foe and carried him back into the living room 
 behind the shop, where they laid him out on a 
 lounge. Hurrying to the nearest drug store, 
 John secured a doctor, fortunately waiting 
 there for a street car, and brought him to the 
 shop. Pushing his way through the group 
 about the injured boy, the latter inspected his 
 wound cursorily and applied restoratives. In 
 a little while his patient showed signs of return 
 ing consciousness; and, on the doctor 's assur 
 ing him no serious consequences from the fall 
 need be apprehended, John gave him Stubbs' 
 house address so he could take him home in a 
 hack later. The rest of the boys had left on 
 hearing the German's cuckoo clock chirp the 
 half hour that told them school was waiting for 
 
92 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 them, and now John, unwilling to embarrass 
 Stubbs with his presence upon his regaining 
 consciousness, followed them slowly schoolward 
 with a disturbed and saddened mind. 
 
 Bill Stubbs did not return to school that af 
 ternoon, and the startling news of the bakery 
 shop scrimmage soon spread through all the 
 class-rooms, as thoroughly as if each youthful 
 ear were equipped with a wireless receiving sta 
 tion. Everybody but the teachers knew of it 
 within fifteen minutes of the opening of the af 
 ternoon session. Disagreeably sensible of the 
 curious, half -admiring glances covertly directed 
 towards him as occasion offered, John could no 
 longer study. He was glad when at last the 
 bell rang for dismissal. He avoided all the 
 others in going out and went straight home 
 alone to tell his parents what had occurred. His 
 young heart was heavy and his thoughts con 
 fused and purposeless, and he longed for their 
 loving comforting and true advice. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 "LITTLE SUNSHINE" 
 
 LOSE by John's home was a very 
 respectable-sized brewery which, 
 started originally in a small way by 
 an uneducated but practical and 
 thrifty German who had learned well his trade 
 in dem Vaterland, was now rapidly increasing 
 its output and growing up with the city. Its 
 owner, although the hardest worker about the 
 place, was noted far and near for his extraordi 
 nary good nature and unfailing kindness of 
 heart. This Ernest Hummelmueller, unlike 
 most of his nationality, had but one child, a 
 girl about a year older than John. 
 
 It would take a more gifted pen than mine 
 adequately to describe this girl. One was 
 tempted at first simply to exclaim in the words 
 of a society woman who once saw her at a 
 school commencement: " Where did she come 
 from? She's a raging, tearing beauty !" 
 
 She was idolized by her father and regarded 
 by her mother with a sort of reverential awe, 
 (just as some gray mother goose might have 
 regarded a transmuting cygnet she had unwit 
 tingly hatched out) and was waited upon by 
 
 93 
 
94 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 both parents in an eager and apologetic man 
 ner that would have been laughable and ridicu 
 lous had it not been so pathetic. They seemed 
 to think her some superior being merely lent to 
 them for this life by the gods and to be strictly 
 accounted for to them hereafter. She was taller 
 than most boys of her own age, lithe and 
 strong, with a light, clear, yet tawny skin 
 cooling to the touch, and limbs and torso like 
 an infant goddess. Her heavy tresses were of 
 a dark Titian red, and running through the 
 darker shades were innumerable hairs so nearly 
 approaching real gold in color that the effect 
 of the whole was startlingly beautiful. This 
 peculiarity led later on, as she grew older and 
 was more frequently observed in public and so 
 ciety, to her being designated as the "Bed-Gold 
 Girl." 
 
 Her manner was peculiarly fascinating in its 
 originality and piquancy. She had the initia 
 tive and force of those brotherless girls who 
 seem to inherit the mentality of their fathers, 
 unconsciously assuming the prerogatives and as 
 similating the practicalities of the non-exist 
 ent male heir. Of a bold and sanguine tem 
 perament, her every feature was yet lyric with 
 a spirituelle, mercurial grace. She was forward 
 with that modesty of innocence which attracts 
 without repelling. She was manly, not mannish 
 
LITTLE SUNSHINE 95 
 
 womanly, not womanish. Her voice was 
 caressing and melodious, with a compelling 
 cadence and timbre that thrilled and drew one. 
 She moved with a jaunty, swinging step that 
 seemed to march to martial music. 
 
 Of an imaginative and romantic disposition, 
 she lived largely in an atmosphere of her own 
 creation. This may or may not have accounted 
 for her escape from the evils of coquetry and 
 self-conceit and waywardness, which must nec 
 essarily have been developed in her under such 
 circumstances, (as would undoubtedly have 
 been the case with any other, ordinary, girl). 
 But withal and in spite of all, she remained 
 loving, obedient and natural, and altogether 
 adorable. 
 
 Her heart was very tender, and her strong 
 est and most noticeable attribute was her in 
 nate sense of justice. The passionate stamp of 
 her little foot, the royal toss of her head and 
 the imperious tones of her clear voice, as she 
 commanded instant cessation of any unkind act 
 she saw, towards human being or dumb animal, 
 compelled automatic obedience. It alone dis 
 closed the queenly temper hidden beneath her 
 usual serene exterior and childish ways. 
 
 Her features were regular, but with a regu 
 larity of their own more pleasing than any ac 
 cepted ideal or model of either the old masters 
 
96 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 or the moderns. Her eyes, large, deep and con 
 templative, belied the wanton glory of her hair 
 and the voluptuous, rosy, yet slightly tawny 
 fairness of her youthfully-rounded face, and 
 were jetty black and full of seriousness. 
 
 But the crowning glory of her whole appear 
 ance was her teeth. Such teeth ! so exquisitely 
 shaped so superbly set, and brought into a 
 thousand different enrapturing views by the 
 ever-changing framing of her mobile lips. 
 When she smiled or gently laughed, the watch 
 ing eye hung fascinated on their dreamy, 
 gleaming lines, and strove in vain to analyze 
 their charm; until her lips closed over them 
 again like ruby curtains shutting out a glimpse 
 of Paradise; and one sighed, as if awakened 
 from a tantalizing, uncompleted vision. 
 
 If ever there grew a human rose, without a 
 thorn, this wondrous maid was one. Her name 
 was Gretchen Ernestine, but her father always 
 called her his "Kleiner Sonnenschein," and the 
 name so fitted both her looks and nature that 
 all who once heard it, ever after adopted that 
 endearing appellation in speaking of her. 
 
 The brewer 's home, as was common in the 
 earlier days of Chicago, was built nearly ad 
 jacent to the grounds of the brewery itself, so 
 that Gretchen was naturally as familiar with, and 
 as much at home in, one place as the other. 
 
LITTLE SUNSHINE 97 
 
 Several such homes, rearing their odd-fash 
 ioned facades in close proximity to long estab 
 lished breweries, far isolated from the better 
 class of residences and deserted by the more 
 exacting children of their former occupants for 
 more congenial neighborhoods, may still be 
 pointed out in that great city domestic monu 
 ments to the pioneering spirit of those hardy, 
 hard-headed immigrants who reaped there the 
 first substantial fruits of their home training, 
 transplanted to a foreign soil. 
 
 Gretchen and John had been playmates since 
 the first dawning of childhood 's reason; they 
 had graduated together from the same common 
 school and were now in the same year in high- 
 school. When others of the scholars in the 
 latter place had changed towards him, she had 
 not, and on the day of Stubbs' signal eclipse 
 she smiled encouragingly at John across the 
 class-room, while her eyes snappd with her sup 
 pressed satisfaction over the sudden retribution 
 visited upon the bully by him for his accumula 
 tion of insults. While he felt sad, she was 
 glad. 
 
 She ran after John as he hurried home from 
 school that day and caught up with him half 
 way. 
 
 "Oh, John! wait for me," she panted, out 
 of breath from running. "Don't think 7 blame 
 
98 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 you; you were perfectly right in what you did. 
 I have often admired your self-command under 
 the continued abuse of that over-bearing fel 
 low; yet I've felt all along that the clash must 
 come, sooner or later, and I am so glad now 
 that you triumphed/' 
 
 John turned about with a mortified face in 
 which reassurance began to struggle forth. He 
 held out his hand. 
 
 "Ever just to everyone and always true to 
 me, Little Sunshine," he said. "You are too 
 kind; I'm afraid I did wrong, but the provoca 
 tion was insupportable and I lost my temper." 
 
 "Poor boy; how you must have suffered. I 
 have often bitten my lips in vexation at your re 
 strained silence ; I could never have held myself 
 in so long in your place. ' ' 
 
 "You must remember my unfortunate posi 
 tion in the matter, Gretchen, and then you will 
 understand my helplessness to retort. I could 
 not act before." 
 
 She looked down, a pained expression on 
 her face and a great longing in her eyes. 
 
 "Oh! if only it were not so," she murmured 
 to herself, sotto voce. 
 
 They walked on side by side unspeaking. 
 each one self-absorbed in thought. Presently 
 she looked up, and catching his doubtful eye, 
 burst into a rippling laugh. 
 
LITTLE SUNSHINE 99 
 
 "Of course it is a serious matter, John," she 
 smiled roguishly, "but I can't help laughing 
 at Bill Stubbs' discomfiture and thinking how 
 mad he must be; Ha! ha! ha! ha! He will now 
 be able to appreciate the application to his own 
 case of that fine old adage, 'Whom the gods 
 would destroy they first make mad'; only he 
 can substitute 'pride* for 'the gods'." 
 
 John gave her a grateful glance in reply. 
 They approached her home, and, with a loyal 
 pressure of his hand, she ran up the front flight 
 of steps. After he had passed on she shyly 
 watched his retreating form, and noted the 
 heavy dejectedness of his air, the absence of his 
 usual buoyancy of carriage. Her face clouded 
 involuntarily, and turning with a sigh she 
 slowly entered the house. There was no one 
 but the cook at home, and she was busy with 
 her pots and pans back in the kitchen. Gret- 
 chen walked from room to room disconsolate 
 and ill-at-ease; then selected a book from the 
 black walnut book-case and sat down by a front 
 window to read. 
 
 She tried to interest herself in the author's 
 tale, but all her thoughts were elsewhere and 
 her eyes constantly wandered from its text to 
 the tops of the trees just visible over the roofs 
 of the houses in the nearby street, and which 
 she knew marked the place of John's abode. 
 
100 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 She had always liked and admired him as a 
 child; they had been play-fellows and mental 
 associates since long before their school days 
 began; but the shadow of the " color line" had 
 not fallen upon their young lives until within 
 the last few months. The crisis had been slow 
 in coming, but the disastrous culmination of 
 the boy Stubbs' persecutions had brought the 
 vexed question to a head and thoroughly awak 
 ened her to the realization of the social gulf that 
 lay between herself and John, whom she was, 
 however, wholly unwilling to give up. She be 
 gan to see that much hostile criticism must un 
 avoidably be displayed against their going to 
 gether as they became older, and her tender 
 heart was grieved, more for him than for her 
 self. It had never occurred to her to "cut him 
 dead" and "drop him." She was far from 
 fashionably brought up, and had not that self 
 ish, calculating coolness of regard and utter 
 abandonment to the main chance which so gen 
 erally characterizes the children of the beau 
 monde and their socially ambitious mothers. 
 
 She tried to puzzle out and solve, as many 
 an older and wiser head than hers had tried 
 before and still is trying to do, the race ques 
 tion; but with this difference, that, while others 
 tried to improve and elevate the status of a 
 whole race, she herself was actuated by her 
 
LITTLE SUNSHINE 101 
 
 sincere affection in seeking a greater happiness 
 for one particular member who suffered inno 
 cently from the stigma of belonging to a race to 
 whose conditions he was fast rising superior. 
 She sat long by the window, buried in reveries 
 half sorrowful, half pleasant, until the descend 
 ing shades of twilight wrapped the world in 
 softened gloom and the printed lines of her 
 open book faded slowly from her sight. 
 
 She was aroused suddenly from her abstrac 
 tion by a gentle touch upon her arm, and start 
 ing to her feet in vague alarm, saw John stand 
 ing diffidently before her, hat in hand. The 
 gathering darkness scarce sufficed to hide her 
 rising color as she stood up with that conscious 
 feeling of mortification that comes over us when 
 apparently detected in our thoughts of some ab 
 sent one by that person's unheralded appear 
 ance. 
 
 "Did I startle you? I'm sorry, " said John. 
 "I rang the door-bell and knocked too, but no 
 one appeared, and as I saw you alone at the 
 window I ventured to come in unannounced. 
 The drawing room door was open to the hall, 
 and I trod heavily to attract your attention; 
 but your thoughts were too busy far away to 
 notice me. 
 
 4 * What were your day dreams about, Gretch- 
 en ? Some fairy prince of far Cathay ? ' ' 
 
102 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 "No, John; I have outgrown all my fairy 
 princes and shall keep my heart unplighted for a 
 prince of earth, " she answered. 
 
 "I would I were a prince then." 
 
 "You are." 
 
 "Then won't you let me enter the lists for 
 you?" 
 
 "That depends; 'only the brave deserve the 
 fair'." 
 
 "You don't know how really brave I am; 
 if you are ever in danger I'll quickly prove 
 my claim. Just try me." 
 
 "My curiosity is very great, but the true 
 knight should show his love by keeping his lady 
 out of danger; not by tempting her into it," 
 she replied gaily. "But, seriously speaking, 
 John, have you told your parents about the 
 Stubbs affair yet?" 
 
 "Yes and they were very much disturbed 
 over it at first ; but when I told them, as I never 
 had before, of all the abuse and affronts piled on 
 me for the past months by him and his obse 
 quious followers and toadies, they were shocked 
 and indignant, and said I did just right. 
 
 "Father will see Mr. Stubbs, senior, tomor 
 row and explain the whole thing to him : I feel 
 greatly relieved, and, as I must have seemed so 
 dull and blue to you this afternoon, I ran over 
 at once to show you that 'Richard is himself 
 
LITTLE SUNSHINE 103 
 
 again.' Gretchen! how good you are to me; 
 how nobly you trusted and helped me in my 
 distress ! ' ' 
 
 "When I do not it will be your own fault, 
 John, and I hope that time may never come." 
 
 She held out both her hands to him and he 
 bent over them and raised them to his lips in 
 reverence. 
 
 " You are becoming quite a i gay gallant/ I'm 
 afraid," she laughed; "won't you stay to sup 
 per; Papa will be here very soon, and I know 
 he will be glad to have you?" 
 
 "No, thank you I promised to be back home 
 again in a few minutes and I want to be with 
 my father and mother to-night. They're wor 
 ried about me and won't eat a bite till I get 
 back; so I'll have to say good-bye now." 
 
 She accompanied him to the great house-door, 
 and giving his hand a sympathetic little 
 squeeze, pushed him jokingly down the steps, 
 telling him, "To run along home and look in 
 the first mirror he found, and he would see a 
 * bonny laddie' whom she liked." 
 
 He turned back abruptly half way down the 
 steps, at this frankly affectionate command, and 
 raised one foot in indecision; but she had run 
 into the house in confusion and slammed the 
 door to. He went on with a strangely light 
 ened heart. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 "FOOLS RUSH IN WHERE ANGELS FEAR 
 TO TREAD" 
 
 HEN John's father called next 
 morning on Stubbs senior to 
 express his regret for their 
 boys' quarrel, the latter was 
 at first inclined to take up the 
 cudgels for his own son and 
 to insist upon John's arrest for assault. But 
 he was speedily convinced against his will that 
 Bill had struck the first blow and that his prior 
 inimical actions would tell against his case and 
 in John's favor in any justice court trial, and 
 the latter could not be convicted in the face of 
 the multitude of witnesses for his side that 
 would voluntarily appear. He was, too, im 
 pressed by the forceful and quiet determination 
 of Jim Manning, and felt intuitively that the 
 colored man would defeat them if they tried it 
 on. So he thought better of it and dropped the 
 idea of open retaliation as at present impracti 
 cal and ill-advised. Affairs resumed their hab 
 itual course and sequence at the school and 
 the fight soon ceased to be an " eight-day won 
 der" there. 
 
 104 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 105 
 
 After Stubbs' return to his class-work the 
 feeling between the two boys was not improved 
 by the fact that that young man, who was badly 
 smitten with Gretchen's charms, began to note 
 more frequently that she preferred John's com 
 pany to his own. To be cut out by a "nigger," 
 he considered an incomprehensible personal af 
 front, especially as most of the other girls 
 "toadied" to him and he posed as the beau 
 par-excellence of the whole school. 
 
 In his vain attempts to "win her for his best 
 girl," he repeatedly wrote notes to her, which, 
 with the free-masonry of the young, were clan 
 destinely passed from hand to hand under the 
 intervening desks until they reached her; but 
 if she read them at all, she certainly dispatched 
 to him no replies by that same "underground 
 railway. ' ' He several times verbally and point 
 edly solicited an invitation to escort her home 
 from school; but invariably she politely de 
 clined the offer, saying it was too far out of 
 his way, and that John was going past her 
 house and would be sufficient "protection" for 
 her. This enraged him all the more, and he 
 vowed he would "lay for that cheap 'coon' and 
 ' get him' at the earliest opportunity, and would 
 humble the 'stuck-up' girl's pride at the same 
 time." 
 
 ' ' Goose Island, ' ' as may be seen from a map 
 
106 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 of the city of Chicago, is an elliptical body of 
 land formed by the division at Chicago avenue 
 of the north branch of the Chicago Eiver into 
 two arms or parts, which diverging in their 
 northwest extension until they reach Division 
 street, there begin to converge, until they meet 
 at North avenue and become again one stream. 
 Thus the waters about the " island" form a 
 sort of turning-basin, so that boats passing up 
 stream and unshipping their cargoes on the 
 banks of either branch, can, without turning 
 around, proceed to the northern apex of the 
 delta, where the circular shape of the island and 
 the doubling together of the two arms of the 
 river leave abundance width of channel to en 
 able them to steer about into the opposite course 
 and head south again. In general outline this 
 tract of land is not unlike an immense flat goose 
 egg, one mile long, and half a mile wide at its 
 extreme, or equatorial, diameter hence its 
 whimsically appropriate name of " Goose 
 Island. " 
 
 The easterly branch of the river formerly 
 did not exist. It came into existence right after 
 the Great Chicago Fire, and was originally ex 
 cavated to furnish clay for the brick yards then 
 situated there and which were pressed for 
 bricks to rebuild the burnt city. Later on the 
 United States Government took jurisdiction 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 107 
 
 over it as navigable water and the turning basin 
 was dredged out to its present extensive dimen 
 sions, at the north end of the "Island." 
 
 Access to the island was formerly had and 
 still was at a very recent date, by two "swing" 
 bridges of wood where North Halsted street 
 crosses each arm of the river in succession, and 
 by two other similar bridges crossing them in 
 the same way, but east and west, at Division 
 street. A railroad bridge, also, enters the island 
 at its North avenue end; and spanning the re 
 joined branches, at North avenue, just across 
 from the extreme northern end of the "island" 
 itself, is still another wagon-bridge, connecting 
 the north and west sides of the city. Several 
 private "jack-knife" bridges, seldom used, 
 gape on the more easterly, and more canal-like, 
 branch at short intervals. Up to nearly the 
 time at which this story ends, all of these va 
 rious bridges were turned by hand, and, with 
 the exception of the most southerly of the two 
 Halsted street spans, lay close to the water and 
 had to be opened for the passage even of small 
 tugboats. 
 
 It has long been the custom for the city, as 
 fast as it builds new and more modern bridges 
 over the main stream of the river and across 
 the lower portion of the South Branch above 
 the fork at Market street, to move the old 
 
108 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 bridges up the two branches, in order to give 
 additional crossing facilities or replace the still 
 poorer and cruder bridges already in place 
 there, and, therefore, those connecting " Goose 
 Island " with the circumscribing " mainland " 
 have always been in various chronic stages of 
 dilapidation and antiquatedness ; and more fre 
 quently than not in the past, one or more of 
 them were out of commission altogether. In 
 the latter case those who used to live or work 
 on the "Island" had to make shift with boats 
 and rafts to reach their morning and evening 
 destinations ; and, also, what was a more serious 
 consideration, the danger of destructive fires 
 among the extensive lumber yards early estab 
 lished there, was greatly increased by the diffi 
 culty and uncertainty of getting the fire-engines 
 across from the "mainland." The city, at the 
 time of which I speak, owned no fire-boats at all. 
 Several disastrous fires did occur there, from 
 time to time; until an alarm from that district 
 had come to be the terror and dread of the 
 whole fire department. 
 
 The original dwelling houses of "Goose 
 Island" consisted almost entirely of one and 
 two-storied, shapeless, wooden shanties set up 
 on post foundations and fairly filling three or 
 four short, narrow streets (which were never 
 swept) at the south end of the "Island," and 
 
A CHARACTERISTIC BIT OF GOOSE ISLAND 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 109 
 
 interspersed among them were occasional low 
 and dirty saloons, dialectically called "gin 
 mills, ' ' in many of which the wife of the propri 
 etor acted as bar-maid, in the old country man 
 ner. The majority of these unpretending 
 "homes" still remain standing, in shabby ir 
 regular rows, with grassless, obstructed yards 
 abutting rotting sidewalks, unpaved, rock- 
 strewn roadways, or "plank roads" and infre 
 quent, unkempt, garbage-encumbered alleys. 
 They are shaded here and there by old, old wil 
 low trees, some having trunks twice as thick 
 as the body of a large man, that still draw a 
 stinted subsistence from the sterile soil and 
 loom against the background of the sky like 
 gnarled and twisted historians of a departed 
 Nature. There were then no gas mains on the 
 "Island," and there are none to this day. 
 
 As far as the eye can penetrate between its 
 nondescript structures, not a blade of grass can 
 be seen on all the "island," which appears to 
 have been blighted by unlovely commercialism 
 and sown with its cinders and ashes and debris 
 till not a flower will bloom there. 
 
 Its "inhabitants" are the poorest of the poor. 
 The women and children poke around the saw 
 dust heaps for small pieces of timber and bark 
 to use for fire-wood, and men can be observed 
 sculling about the river in flat-bottomed boats 
 
110 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 fishing for drift-wood. Other women and chil 
 dren busy themselves picking up coals dropped 
 along the main streets by the coal wagons start 
 ing from the docks and those dropped from the 
 trains along the complicated network of rail 
 road tracks. Nothing is allowed by them to be 
 wasted. 
 
 The entire aspect and general atmosphere of 
 the "Island" and the adjacent shores of the 
 mainland, is picturesque, both in the character 
 istic and blended outlines of the great variety of 
 manufacturing plants and storage yards, the 
 masts and the hulls of the shipping, and the 
 fantastically-piled lumber, and in the European 
 appearance of the poverty-stricken residence 
 streets with bedding hanging from the windows 
 of their houses in the day time. The sky line 
 is diversified by tall chimney-stacks and towers, 
 long elevators, square factories, upreared 
 "jack-knife" bridges, immense, round gas res 
 ervoir tanks, coal-hoisting cranes and dumps, 
 the spars and funnels of vessels and the ele 
 phantine outlines of the great hulls undergoing 
 repairs in dry-docks. By night the fitful, puls 
 ing, flaring reflection on the sky from the flame - 
 topped chimneys brings out in sinister relief 
 these myriad shapes. 
 
 Except on Sundays, the air is shrouded in a 
 pall of sun-obscuring smoke and dust and noise- 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 111 
 
 some heat; the streets are unsprinkled, and the 
 dust of a thousand years of toil seems to eddy 
 about the colorless, weird-shaped buildings and 
 whirl along the narrow thoroughfares, and to 
 drift across the heartless, dreary, prosaic wastes. 
 In spite of its picturesqueness and its art values 
 from the painter's standpoint, one involuntarily 
 shivers in passing through it, as if passing 
 through the graveyard of romance. 
 
 One sultry summer afternoon just before 
 sundown a denser smoke than usual began to 
 waft across the reddening western rays and an 
 odor of smouldering wood attacked by slow 
 degrees the nostrils. This change in the air, 
 which would have been more quickly noted in 
 a clearer part of the city, came on so gradually 
 that it was some fifteen minutes before any 
 one became suspicious of its source. Then sev 
 eral pairs of eyes simultaneously discovered lit 
 tle bodies of flame creeping forth through the 
 crevices in a lumber pile to the north, hardly 
 discernible in the daylight but for the accom 
 panying smoke which formed a darker back 
 ground against which they stood out. Suddenly 
 the cry of "Fire! Fire! Fire!" arose, and was 
 borne with startling clearness on the wind. It 
 was taken up and repeated from mouth to 
 
112 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 mouth far to the south and east, the flames 
 themselves being as yet invisible from other 
 directions on account of the intervening lumber 
 and buildings. Every one passing within sound 
 of the warning ran towards the point of well- 
 understood danger, and people at supper in 
 their homes dropped their knives and forks with 
 a clatter and hurried out in anxiety, bare 
 headed and coatless. 
 
 The flames crept on, gaining more rapid 
 headway from the strong breeze, which had 
 now veered round and was blowing out of the 
 southwest. Almost before an alarm could be 
 turned in and long before a temporary stand 
 against them could be organized by a bucket 
 brigade stretching to the nearest river bank 
 and men running out private hose lines from 
 the adjacent buildings, the fire was beyond local 
 control and working its way into the very heart 
 of the dry, inflammable piles on piles of dressed 
 lumber. The whole populace of the " Island 1? 
 turned out, to be joined, as the minutes passed 
 in quick suspense, by hundreds and thousands 
 from all sides across the river's branches. 
 
 The first engine to arrive came from the 
 east, only to find the Division street bridge 
 swung open with a vessel stuck in the draw, 
 and had to turn about and run south to the 
 Halsted street bridge across the east branch, 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 11 
 
 thus approaching the fire by a circuitous route 
 consuming over ten minutes of invaluable time. 
 It was closely followed by a second steamer 
 from the south via Halsted street; but the lat 
 ter, after passing safely over a short length of 
 plank road on one of the narrower streets, struck 
 a large rock in its unpaved part beyond and 
 broke a wheel, causing still another vexatious 
 delay. 
 
 In the meantime two more engines reached 
 the scene, from the west; and another crossed 
 westwardly by the North avenue bridge just 
 beyond the "Island," and taking up their sta 
 tion on the mainland, its crew carried their 
 hose across the river in a commandeered row- 
 boat. The location of water supply hydrants 
 was of no particular moment, as most of the 
 fire-engines were stationed close enough to 
 pump water direct from the river. 
 
 The fire, by this time, threatened destruction 
 of the entire belt of lumber yards, and a 4-11 
 alarm was sent in. Soon all the fire apparatus 
 for miles around was being rushed to the res 
 cue; and the clanging of their gongs and bells, 
 the clatter of their horses' hoofs, the rumbling 
 of their wheels, the pounding of the steamers' 
 pumps, the hissing of the streams as they turned 
 to steam in the fiery heat of the flames, and the 
 shouts of the firemen and spectators ; formed al- 
 
114 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 together a mighty chorus to the snapping and 
 crackling and crashing of the burning lumber 
 and the shrieks of the engines whistling for 
 coal and of the tug-boats struggling to dislodge 
 vessels from their burning docks. 
 
 The scene in all its wild, chaotic fury was 
 one never to be forgotten by those who saw it. 
 
 The heat from the falling piles of boards 
 and timbers became finally so intense that the 
 boldest and most seasoned firemen had to re 
 treat five hundred feet from the nearest line of 
 fire, and the flames mounted and shot out in 
 mad darts in every direction through the roll 
 ing smoke, until high in the air they met and 
 joined forces in a roaring volcano of liquid light 
 belching forth fiery, flying boards and splinters 
 and star-like sparks that, carried on the wings 
 of a high wind augmented by the terrific draft 
 created by the conflagration itself, alighted 
 promiscuously on roofs of houses, decks of ves 
 sels and tops of stored lumber and freight cars 
 for half a mile around. These started innumer 
 able minor fires which hundreds of volunteers 
 from the crowd were kept busy fighting and 
 extinguishing. 
 
 The sky was lighted up as by a brilliant sun 
 set and the intensity of its combustion gave to 
 the central body of flames a pulsating, throbbing 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 116 
 
 glare that dazzled and pained the eye like gaz 
 ing at the sun in the zenith. 
 
 It seemed a physical impossibility for any 
 inanimate thing to survive for a minute in the 
 path of the devastating flames, or for any mor 
 tal being to brave its terrors and live; yet both 
 these miracles did come to pass that night. 
 
 At the first spreading of the alarm John and 
 his father were startled from an early supper. 
 Reaching for their hats, they bade Jemima stay 
 and watch the house, and covered the two blocks 
 between them and the rapidly igniting mass 
 in two minutes. There they lent their aid to 
 the amateur efforts to stay the progress of the 
 flames until the arrival of the fire brigades, 
 when they were forced to become excited but 
 helpless spectators like the rest. Here they 
 were joined by Mr. Hummelmueller, the brewer, 
 and many others they knew, amongst the throng 
 being several despairing owners of the doomed 
 properties. The noise and clangor were so great 
 that they had to scream to make each other 
 understand. When they had been standing 
 there about ten minutes they were made aware 
 of the presence of Mrs. Hummelmueller and 
 Jemima, who, unable to resist the fascination 
 and grandeur of the spectacle, had followed 
 them. After some expostulation with these two 
 at their exposing themselves so unnecessarily, 
 
116 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 the whole party moved back a space from the 
 front ranks to be clear of the crowd, and there 
 continued to watch the fire over the heads of 
 those in front of them. While gathered there 
 in momentary silence, who should burst in upon 
 them in a state of feverish excitement but Bill 
 Stubbs. 
 
 "0, say!" he shouted, "do you know that 
 some of the firemen think that they have several 
 times seen a human figure standing up on top 
 of one of the lumber piles, just beyond the 
 flames and in their path ? They 're afraid some 
 one has been caught in the fire!" 
 
 The faces of his auditors blanched at the 
 news and an uncontrollable restlessness attacked 
 them. 
 
 "But he could escape towards the north, 
 could he not?" a listener asked. 
 
 "No; the line of the fire is moving in a semi 
 circle or crescent, and if anyone is really there 
 he will be quickly and effectually hemmed in 
 on three sides," said Stubbs. 
 
 "But the north side is still open." 
 
 "No; it is not. Flying sparks have ignited 
 the yards a block ahead of the main flames, and 
 an independent fire is already raging there, cut 
 ting off all hope of his retreat in that direction. " 
 
 "Well, I hope the firemen were mistaken," 
 put in Mr. Hummelmueller. "By the way, Will, 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 117 
 
 how do you happen to be here at this hour, so 
 far from your home?" 
 
 "Why, I came over to see Gretchen; didn't 
 you know of it?" 
 
 ' ' I did not but where is Gretchen now ? ' ' 
 
 "Isn't she here? I thought I should find her 
 with you she must have got back by this 
 time." 
 
 "Back from where?" 
 
 "Oh, I forgot you didn't know. You see, a 
 lot of us were playing among the lumber piles, 
 and when we smelt smoke we all ran." 
 
 "Which way did Gretchen go?" her mother 
 interrupted in alarm. 
 
 "I don't really know; in our hurry we all 
 got separated, but I guess she is somewhere 
 around," vouchsafed the boy. 
 
 Mrs. Hummelmueller was just starting for 
 home, to assure herself of her daughter's safe 
 return there, when a fire-marshal came up to 
 them hurriedly. Calling aside Mr. Hummel 
 mueller, whom he knew personally, he said 
 earnestly: 
 
 "Mr. Hummelmueller, I want you to take 
 coolly what I'm going to tell you, as there may 
 be nothing in it for you to worry about more 
 than others, but there is certainly some one 
 caught in this hellish trap, and it is a woma/n. 
 I have sent three different firemen up to the 
 
118 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 roofs of buildings overlooking the flames, and 
 they all report the same thing. " 
 
 "Gott im Himmel! aber dieses ist furchter- 
 lich! Who can it be?" cried the German, re 
 lapsing in his horror into his native tongue. 
 
 "Have you seen your daughter within the 
 last half hour, sir!" 
 
 "No; but you surely can't suspect that the 
 woman your men saw is she?" faltered the 
 father. 
 
 "I hope not; yet one of my men who lives 
 on the * Island' and knows her street dress, 
 was struck by its similarity to that worn by this 
 woman penned up in the fire." 
 
 "Anyhow, whoever she may be," he added, 
 "I'm going to ask for volunteers to try and beat 
 a way through to her, and I wish you would try 
 to locate your daughter at once and report the 
 result to me within the next ten minutes. ' ' 
 
 "I will have my preparations for attempt 
 ing the rescue of this poor woman all made by 
 that time," concluded the marshal. 
 
 Just then John, who had climbed a conveni 
 ent tree, tumbled to the ground in his haste to 
 get down and came rushing towards the others, 
 crying: 
 
 "Gretchen's in the fire! Oh! Gretchen's in 
 the fire! Quick! quick! I saw her just now! I 
 saw her on top of a high pile of boards, try- 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 119 
 
 ing to attract attention by waving her red sash 
 over her head! Oh! what shall we do! come on! 
 Come on! I'm going after her right now!" 
 
 The people began to crowd around him in 
 dumbfounded consternation, doubting their own 
 senses. Mrs. Hummelmueller fell on her knees, 
 rocking from side to side and moaning: 
 
 "Ach! mein Kind Mein kleines Kind; es 
 ist verloren!" Her husband was stricken dumb 
 with anguish and gazed vacantly about him. 
 The shock was almost too sudden for realiza 
 tion, and he seemed not to comprehend what 
 others were saying. 
 
 Many around him at once volunteered their 
 services for the rescue. They moved wildly 
 and aimlessly here and there, trying to devise 
 or suggest means of approaching the fiery prison 
 of the doomed girl; but the more experienced 
 marshal held them all back and, calling some of 
 his own men, collected together several lines of 
 hose from the nearest engines, and set about sta 
 tioning their pipemen so their streams would 
 all fall as closely as possible on the spot where 
 the girl was last seen. With another group of 
 firemen he sought out the shortest available 
 path to the point of the victim's immolation, 
 and directed all the other streams he could 
 muster so they would "play" along the path, 
 one beyond the other. So that there was, as 
 
120 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 nearly as possible, a continuous, overlapping 
 fall of water upon it. Then he started the hook- 
 and-ladder men to hacking right and left of 
 the path and to pulling down the burning boards 
 ahead of them as they advanced. The pipemen 
 played their streams upon these as fast as they 
 were dislodged. 
 
 The police kept in check the excited crowds 
 at the police fire-line, well behind the fire fight 
 ers themselves, but half a dozen men whom the 
 marshal had picked out from those volunteer 
 ing, followed close behind the little band of 
 chosen department men, and with these were 
 Mr. Hummelmueller, John and Jim Manning 
 and Bill Stubbs. Just before the start was made 
 Mr. Hummelmueller had shouted out that he 
 would give ten thousand dollars to any man 
 who would save his daughter, and spurred to 
 activity by this tremendous reward, several un 
 thinking individuals had broken through the 
 lines and pressed too closely upon the flames, 
 only to be forced back with singed hair and 
 scorched faces. The police cordon forcibly pre 
 vented any more such attempts, and none but 
 those designated by the marshal himself were 
 again permitted to place themselves in useless 
 danger. The heroic band fought stubbornly on 
 along the path outlined for them by the ax- 
 men and the pipemen 's streams, but their prog- 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 121 
 
 ress seemed a snail's pace to the impatient and 
 horrified watchers. 
 
 The girl was not again seen, but John, in 
 the purely animal sagacity of his agony, seemed 
 to feel instinctively where she must be, and he 
 urged the men on repeatedly towards their goal. 
 The heat around them was now terrific, the 
 smoke rolled over them; and every few minutes 
 some fireman would fall back gasping for air, 
 only to return to the fight when he had caught 
 his breath again. 
 
 Noticing that Stubbs kept well to the rear 
 and did more talking than work, John became 
 enraged and asked him, "why, in God's name, 
 he had been so cowardly and ungallant as not 
 to have stayed beside Gretchen in the first place 
 and so made sure of her safety ?" 
 
 Stubbs hotly retorted that, 1 1 talk was cheap, 
 and if he, John, was so d d brave, he had bet 
 ter, prove it now, especially since he was so 
 ' stuck on' Gretchen." 
 
 Wheeling on him, John dealt him a blow on 
 the neck, and screaming above the roar of 
 the conflagration, "You contemptible cur! I 
 will!" he darted across the open space behind 
 them and along into the crowd. He ran to the 
 nearest house and stripped a blanket from the 
 first bed he saw. This he saturated all through 
 and thoroughly in the water from a leak in one 
 
122 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 of the hose-lines, and flew back with it across 
 the fire-line again to where he had left the 
 handful of dauntless rescuers and pushed on 
 with them. They had fought their arduous way 
 to within a few rods of the girl's fearful van 
 tage point, which had now caught fire in spite 
 of all the efforts of the pipemen and was com 
 mencing to smoulder and blaze like a funeral 
 pyre, when John, who was in the lead, mysteri 
 ously disappeared. He had jumped across and 
 over the flaming debris directly in front of the 
 firemen and turned so quickly to the right be 
 tween two huge burning piles that the eyes of 
 the rest could scarcely follow the rapidity of 
 his movements. 
 
 His foster-father sallied after him, but the 
 others seized him and restrained him from his 
 folly by main force, while they worked forward 
 with the increasing fury of derangement, fight 
 ing their own exhaustion as well as the blaze 
 confronting them. 
 
 i i My God ! he is a dead man ! ' ' shrieked Mr. 
 Hummelmueller; and Jim struggled with his 
 comrades, who fought to check his mad impulse 
 to rush into the very heart of the soulless, de 
 stroying element. 
 
 The coveted goal towards which all their 
 eyes fearfully turned, burned faster and faster, 
 but the little company of daring heroes became 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 123 
 
 so exhausted and were so overcome by the tor 
 rid temperature and belching smoke, that it was 
 effectively stopped and driven back inch by 
 inch. A loud groan went up from the distant 
 crowds as the particular lumber pile on which 
 their hopes and fears were set burst into one 
 solid sheet of bright-red flames. 
 
 The fire-marshal ordered his men forward 
 with oaths, but they had reached the limit of 
 human endurance, and though they responded 
 desperately, they could advance no further. 
 
 So, while the streams of water were still kept 
 spurting upon the point they had tried so 
 vainly, though heroically, to make, the drenched 
 and scarred would-be deliverers dragged each 
 other reluctantly backward to the police-lines. 
 There they stood or sat, overwhelmed in body 
 and spirit, watching in helplessness the de 
 struction and human catastrophe they were 
 powerless to avert. 
 
 When John leaped forward and away from 
 the other men he had no plan but the fixed idea 
 and determination of reaching Gretchen some 
 how and in any way, and either rescuing her 
 or dying with her. 
 
 Finding a narrow, open space to the right 
 and just beyond, he had plunged blindly into 
 it, and, dodging in and out between the con 
 suming squares of timber, he had succeeded in 
 
124 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 covering nearly half the distance to Gretchen 
 when a furious rain of fire drove him to the 
 ground. 
 
 As he went down, blinded and smothered by 
 the smoke, his head struck a raised mound of 
 earth. Extending one hand to reconnoitre his 
 position, he found nothing but vacancy where 
 the ground should have been and his arm de 
 scended to the elbow in an open hole. Con 
 fused and half delirious as he was, he intuitively 
 felt lower for its bottom, and then it suddenly 
 flashed upon his waning senses that he knew 
 just where he was. He remembered that the 
 children of his neighborhood had, some months 
 ago, dug a miniature, cave-like tunnel at least 
 a hundred feet in length under the lumber piles, 
 using stray boards and scantling they found in 
 the yards to line it and support its roof. 
 
 Hope sprung up anew within him, and he 
 formed the daring resolution of creeping 
 through the mimic subterranean passage, once 
 so thoughtlessly wrought and now so tragically 
 useful, and trying to get to his imperiled school 
 mate from its other end. The air was cooler 
 and less filled with smoke in the bore ; and, has 
 tily summoning all his strength and courage, 
 he began to crawl forward underneath the 
 heated earth. The illumination of the surround 
 ing blaze shining in at the further extremity 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 125 
 
 guided Mm like a beacon. He could hear the 
 roaring detonations of the flames and feel the 
 vibration of the falling, crashing lumber above 
 him, but, mindful of nought but his one great 
 purpose, he pushed on through. Looking out 
 cautiously upon his arrival at the opposite open 
 ing, his heart beat tumultously; for he recog 
 nized the place of Gretchen's awful incarcera 
 tion only a few feet away and with one entire 
 side and part of another side ablaze. He 
 emerged from the " burrow" on his hands and 
 knees to keep his face in the clearer air near the 
 ground. Wrapping the now smoking blanket 
 over his head and all about him, he drew a long, 
 deep breath of air, started to his feet, and made 
 a last, mad rush for the burning square ahead. 
 
 In those days of less valuable land and more 
 available space, lumber was not always piled, 
 as it is today, in solid blocks, but was frequently 
 built up into hollow squares, the boards over 
 lapping each other at the four corners, so that 
 there was room on all sides to catch the hands 
 and toes between the boards and thus climb to 
 the top, which was generally about ten feet from 
 terra firma. The children used to make-believe 
 in their play that these hollow squares, afford 
 ing partial privacy, were " houses " and that 
 their sides were lattices. This one in which 
 Gretchen had taken refuge was such a hollow 
 
126 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 square and a proportionally safer retreat than 
 the solid blocks. 
 
 Looking between the lower boards, John 
 could now see the object of his search, lying ap 
 parently unconscious but unburnt upon the 
 ground in its centre. Unappalled by his terrible 
 surroundings and over-joyed at his unhoped for 
 luck, he immediately scaled the one side of the 
 pile as yet unignited and jumped down inside. 
 Shedding the blanket in one shake of his body, 
 he threw it over Gretchen and grasped her 
 shoulders, raising her into a sitting posture. 
 Kneeling down, he placed his own shoulders un 
 der her breast, so that her head and arms 
 drooped down over his back. Then, with a 
 mighty strain, he rose from his knees and stag 
 gered with his human burden to the single cor 
 ner not on fire. Using both hands and feet to 
 climb with and trusting in the pressure of her 
 body against the lumber triangle in front of 
 him to hold her on his shoulders and prevent her 
 slipping off, he began the perilous, slow ascent. 
 
 Twice he wavered and nearly lost his hold, 
 and at any other point but the corner, where 
 there was sufficient room for her body between 
 him and the seething boards and where he could 
 get a firmer foothold from being able to step 
 now on one side of the square and now on the 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 127 
 
 adjacent side, he must have fallen and both 
 have been lost. 
 
 The top boards were hot to his touch and 
 pained his hands; he was forced to hold his 
 breath to avoid inhaling the heat waves' poi 
 son; but at last, with a despairing wrench and 
 groan he got one leg over that final obstacle 
 that barred their egress. 
 
 He stood erect for a single dramatic second ; 
 then, half jumping, half falling, with both arms 
 about the girl, he struck the ground with a 
 heavy thud just as the wall they had quitted 
 burst into a glorious fountain of golden flames. 
 Without the strength or will-power to carry her 
 weight any further, he dragged her after him 
 with tortured muscles, and with a quick, jerk 
 ing movement backed himself into the mouth 
 of the tunnel and pulled her in head-first be 
 hind him. The solid square of lumber directly 
 in front of the tunnel 's opening fell with a 
 thunderous crash a second after they had en 
 tered it, completely blocking it up with a solid 
 mass of living fire. Easing the form of the still 
 unseeing and unhearing girl along to the centre 
 of their narrow haven, John dropped limp be 
 side her, utterly unable to stir hand or foot 
 after the horrible ordeal, the physical and nerv 
 ous strain, he had undergone. For fully ten 
 minutes he lay thus in the inertia of reaction. 
 
128 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Breathing was difficult, but still possible in their 
 peculiar position of fresh imprisonment, and his 
 first thought on recovering a measure of equa 
 nimity and vigor was of the necessity of look 
 ing into his companion's condition. He pro 
 ceeded to examine her carefully. Her face and 
 hands appeared to be slightly blistered and her 
 dress was singed in spots; her eye-brows were 
 gone, and her hair burnt off on the end where 
 it had hung loose; but he could discover no 
 other or more serious hurts about her. The 
 only doubt that remained was as to whether she 
 had inhaled the flames at all, the most danger 
 ous possibility and the hardest to decide about 
 from mere appearances. 
 
 Taking courage then, he put his lips to hers, 
 which were open, and sucked the breath from 
 her lungs intermittently, in an effort to force 
 an artificial respiration, and tried to wring out 
 any water there might still be in the blanket 
 across her face. But she seemed to be in a 
 stupor, almost a comatose state, and gave no 
 signs of life except a light, slow heart-beat, 
 which he could faintly detect. Knowing that 
 it might be hours before they were found 
 or could leave their temporary shelter, he 
 racked his wits for some practical means of 
 reviving her. 
 
 He began himself to suffer from thirst and 
 
"FOR A SINGLE DRAMATIC SECOND HE STOOD ERECT" 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 129 
 
 the girl's lips were scorched and parched, and 
 he realized that what they both needed impera 
 tively was water. But where was he to find it 
 in this dry hole? 
 
 There seemed to be absolutely nothing more 
 he could do for her; but in moving backward 
 and forward in nervous vacillation, his foot 
 came in contact with a slight projection above 
 the earth floor, or bed, of the tunnel, and on 
 investigation he saw that he had uncovered the 
 top of one of those old wooden, street water- 
 pipes first laid in Chicago long before iron 
 ones were thought of. This one was evidently 
 part of a private water system belonging to the 
 lumber yard itself, which once got its water 
 direct from the river, using its own water- 
 pumps. (Curious specimens of these interesting 
 relics can now be seen in the historical collec 
 tion at the Chicago City Hall.) He tapped on 
 it gently and then listened with his ear held 
 against it. He fairly cried out with delight 
 when he distinguished the unmistakable sound 
 of moving water. These wooden pipes had been 
 discarded by the city itself years ago, but by 
 some fortunate oversight or through some clan 
 destine intent to escape paying city-water bills 
 by continuing to use river water gratis, this 
 one, which he had expected to find empty and 
 
130 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 dry, had been allowed to remain a "live" pipe, 
 and they were saved. 
 
 Taking out his big, boy's jack-knife, he cut 
 a splinter from one of the overhead boards and 
 whittled it into a round plug. Then patiently 
 turning his knife round and round, like a gim 
 let, with its point inserted in the treacherous 
 surface of the old, rotten wood pipe, he care 
 fully bored through it till a tiny stream of luke 
 warm water spurted out and up. He waited 
 until a small pool had formed around the open 
 ing in the pipe and then plugged it up. He laid 
 Gretchen's head tenderly on his lap and wet it 
 profusely with the water he scooped up in his 
 cupped hands. He forced a little water down 
 her throat. While waiting for her to revive he 
 relieved his own burning thirst with copious 
 draughts. 
 
 In a short time her eyelids commenced to 
 flutter and her lips to move, and at last, with a 
 choking gasp, she stirred; her eyes tremblingly 
 opened, and she looked up in a dazed way into 
 John's anxiously smiling face, while he bent 
 lovingly over her and softly kissed her poor 
 scorched brow. 
 
 The human-worm-hole which they had appro 
 priated for their underground refuge was just 
 of sufficient height to admit of their sitting up 
 right without striking its roof with their heads. 
 
FOOLS RUSH IN 131 
 
 and John gently placed her in an easy position 
 with her back against the tunnel wall and her 
 limbs crossed under her. Eemoving the splinter 
 plug from the hole in the pipe again, he joined 
 his palms and fingers together, forming a very 
 fair drinking cup, though of doubtful cleanness. 
 He let the water which fountained from the 
 aperture fall into this, and lifting his hands 
 to her lips, begged her to drink. This simple 
 manoeuvre he repeated several times. When 
 she could drink no more and he had reslaked 
 his own thirst, he replaced the plug, taking off 
 one of his shoes and hammering it in tightly 
 with light blows of the shoe-heel, and then sat 
 down himself close alongside of her. He had 
 expected her upon regaining consciousness to 
 cry out and become hysterical, but she made no 
 sound and asked no questions. She simply sat 
 quiet, contemplating him with meaningless 
 glances and uncomprehending brain. Then, 
 without warning, as John watched her in re 
 newed alarm (this time for her reason) she 
 raised one hand slowly to her hair and, letting 
 it fall again half way, drew her arm softly and 
 unconsciously about his neck, like a weary child, 
 and laid her head upon his shoulder with her 
 face upturned to his. For a moment her eyes 
 gazed inquiringly into his, then the tired lashes 
 drooped, her breath came sighingly and evenly, 
 
132 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 and she fell gradually into that dreamless slum 
 ber which kindly Nature lends to extreme men 
 tal and physical fatigue. 
 
 John had loosened wide her dress at the 
 throat in his first, frantic efforts to revive her, 
 and as he presently passed his arm around her 
 waist to hold her safe and comfortable, he saw 
 now and again, through the disarrangement of 
 her corsage and its underlying linens, her 
 rounded, virginal bosoms' rhythmic rise and 
 fall. Both fascinated and ashamed, he averted 
 his gaze. His young blood leaped to his neck, 
 and flooded his cheeks and brow ; and, too mod 
 est to attempt to rearrange her disordered gar 
 ments, he drew the blanket, now dry, caressingly 
 over her, and with contending thoughts and emo 
 tions, awaited the hour of their release. He lost 
 all record of time and must have fallen asleep ; 
 for he remembered nothing more until he sud 
 denly perceived the light of day streaming in 
 at the unblocked, eastern mouth of the bore, 
 and found himself lying with his own head on 
 Gretchen's knees, his face pressed between her 
 two soft hands and her lips on his. 
 
 She started wild-eyed like a frightened doe, 
 and he felt the salty, tickling moisture on his 
 cheeks of tears not shed by him, and wondered 
 at them. She had not refastened her dress, and 
 in the quick surprise of his awakening, the agi- 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 133 
 
 tation of her heart showed plainly in the rapid 
 flushing of her full, ivory-smooth throat and in 
 the tumultuous swelling and reswelling of her 
 breasts, now clearly disclosed as she bent over 
 him in the dawning light. She looked away 
 guiltily and seemed confused, and he sat up 
 quickly and defensively, mortified at his unin 
 tentional neglect of her. 
 
 "I'm afraid I make a poor watch-dog, " said 
 he apologetically. 
 
 She turned her face toward him again. 
 
 i ' Were you watching, John? Where are we, 
 and how did we get here? I have no recollec 
 tion of coming here all I remember is falling 
 between those awful burning rows of lumber 
 walls; then all was black to me until I opened 
 my eyes again in full realization that I was still 
 alive, but in some mysterious place. Did you 
 save me? How! Tell me about it." 
 
 As unassumingly as he could, John related 
 to her the whole story of her miraculous rescue 
 and escape, from the time he first recognized 
 her on the lumber-pile down to the present mo 
 ment. She did not interrupt him, but listened 
 to the improbable tale with wide-distended eyes 
 and indrawn breath. 
 
 When he ceased she sat speechless and ab 
 sorbed in thought for a few seconds, as though 
 to take in the full measure of his heroism and 
 
134 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 its reasons. Then with a steady yet timid gaze, 
 she seemed to draw him to her by her eyes alone. 
 She slowly extended her arms to him, and the 
 words came: 
 
 "And did you love me so? Dear John, will 
 you kiss me?" she softly faltered. 
 
 A sweet shock of indescribable desire passed 
 through him and engulfed his innocence as he 
 yielded passionately to her embraces, and he 
 gave her the first love-kiss he had ever pressed 
 upon the lips of any living woman. She clung 
 to him and laid her burning face against his; 
 then let him go. After a little she laughed: 
 
 "I must be a sight, John! what do I look 
 like?" 
 
 "Like an angel, to me," he replied, unhesi 
 tatingly. 
 
 "Then let us fly this unheavenly place," said 
 Gretchen; and, without any prudish turning of 
 her back upon him, she began to readjust and 
 smooth out her clothing as well as the cramped 
 space permitted. 
 
 "Now, lead me on, my Sir Galahad," she 
 mockingly commanded. 
 
 John crawled out first and drew her up from 
 the opening; and there they stood, all alone, in 
 the blinding glare of the sudden sunlight, with 
 naught for blocks around them but the low- 
 burning, smouldering and charred remnants of 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 135 
 
 the once imposing millions of feet of lumber, as 
 though arisen, like Lazarus, from the dead. And 
 the simile is not unhopefully offered here; for 
 their hearts, at least, were born anew. 
 
 It is not given to many, even in this late day 
 of scientific and financial prodigies, to say, with 
 Byron: "I awoke one morning to find myself 
 famous, ' ' yet, in a local way, that is what now 
 happened to John. 
 
 Picking their tortuous path as best they could 
 over and around the blackened but still danger 
 ous debris, they haltingly wound their way with 
 stiffened limbs towards the part of the " Island " 
 where they lived. Soon they came upon the 
 usual crowd of sight-seers, who hailed them with 
 shouts, and as they approached closer they were 
 greeted with a roar of surprise and incredulous, 
 wondering congratulations and a rush of eager 
 hands and faces, that threatened to drown them 
 both in a friendly human maelstrom. The search 
 for their bodies had been abandoned a little 
 while before ; only a few firemen were left there 
 to watch for the final extinguishment of the 
 last tiny spark; and their parents had been con 
 ducted to their respective homes broken-hearted, 
 dry-eyed and completely unmanned and subju 
 gated by the immensity of the calamity that 
 left both homes entirely childless at once. 
 
 Borne on by the ever-augmenting multitude. 
 
136 ERIC MAEOTTE 
 
 John and Gretchen pushed their way through 
 still other crowds to the little brick cottage. 
 
 Jim and Jemima, startled from their break 
 fast by the approaching din, ran to the door, 
 filled with nameless, dreadful surmisings. With 
 agonized hearts they waited, crouched as for an 
 expected mental blow; until the clamorous con 
 course, parting reluctantly in the centre, al 
 lowed the two survivors to come forth into view. 
 
 When John's parents saw them they could 
 not believe the evidence of their own eyes. At 
 best, they had hoped for nothing more than the 
 recovery of the gruesome, disfigured bodies of 
 the two lost children ; yet here they came, alive 
 and walking, like a miracle wrought of Christ ! 
 For an instant the entire assemblage stood mute 
 and palpitating, their eyes turned on Jim and 
 Jemima and awaiting the crisis of the final act. 
 Then the four principals in the little drama 
 rushed into each others* arms, and the crowd 
 burst into cheers dissolved in tears. 
 
 There are human experiences that can never 
 be justly delineated and sudden emotions of the 
 heart too deep to gauge with ever so subtle a 
 pen, and the meeting between these four fate- 
 favored beings has no competent recorder this 
 side the Recording Angel. 
 
 A discreet, tactful messenger was at once 
 sent off to bring Mr. and Mrs. Hummelmueller 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 137 
 
 to the cottage. When the latter, half an hour 
 later, were brought there in a carriage (too weak 
 from grief to walk even that short distance) Jim 
 had to stop them at his door and there break 
 by degrees to them the good news that the 
 children of both families were still living, just 
 as though he were preparing them for the shock 
 of tidings of death. For unexpected joy can 
 kill as surely as unexpected sorrow. 
 
 " Friend Hummelmueller, ' ' he said, very qui 
 etly, " before you enter this house I want you 
 and your dear wife to muster all your strength 
 and fortitude; for you will need them now as 
 you have never needed them until this hour." 
 
 Gretchen's father laid his hand on Jim's 
 shoulder to sustain his own poignant misery. 
 
 The bitter, humble appeal of a crushed and 
 blighted spirit was in his eyes as he searched 
 those of this neighbor who had suffered with 
 themselves. 
 
 ' 'Tell us the worst, friend we can imagine 
 no heavier burden than that we already bear. 
 What is it you are afraid to tell us? Have the 
 bodies of our children been found?" 
 
 "Yes," replied Jim, "and there is something 
 more to tell." 
 
 Gretchen's mother began to shiver and choke 
 and she feared to look at him; but something 
 in the expression of his face awoke her mother's 
 
138 ERIC MAROTTB 
 
 intuition, and the terrible, excruciating longing 
 of her mother's heart spoke. In a scarcely au 
 dible whisper, hesitating at every word as if 
 to delay the dreadful answer it must bring, her 
 lips, rather than her voice, began: 
 
 "They cannot be alive?" There was no hope 
 in the spoken question only agony and love 
 and suspense. 
 
 Taking a hand of each in his to uphold them, 
 Jim, who could not as yet trust himself to speak, 
 simply nodded his head gravely and affirma 
 tively, and then drew them into the parlor to 
 seat them and give them time to recover from 
 this rekindling of the ashes of their hopes. He 
 must still further prepare them for what was 
 still to come. The couple quickly subsided into 
 a stunned, expectant stillness, and waited there 
 like two helpless children. 
 
 The blinds had been purposely closed to 
 gether, with only a row or two of their shutters 
 open, and the light in the house was dim. 
 Gretchen had previously been put to bed in an 
 adjoining room and her slight burns and abra 
 sions dressed and bandaged; and John sat there 
 beside her. Out in the parlor Mrs. Hummel- 
 mueller, unable to stand the uncertainty any 
 longer, begged piteously through her streaming 
 tears that "they might be allowed to see their 
 daughter at once, no matter how terribly she 
 
FOOLS BUSH IN 139 
 
 was burnt and injured, or however horribly her 
 pretty face was marred. ' ' 
 
 So Jim, putting his finger to his lips to ad 
 jure absolute silence upon them, bowed solemnly 
 and lead them slowly into the fateful bedroom. 
 
 John and Gretchen had been warned to make 
 no demonstrations, and when the three adults 
 entered, Gretchen lay impassive with closed 
 eyes, her forehead wrapped in a large linen 
 handkerchief, one bandaged hand and arm 
 stretched out before her on the coverlet and the 
 other drawn across her face, half hiding it. 
 John had gently slipped from the room upon 
 the entrance of the others, and now remained 
 looking on unseen in another darkened door 
 way. Jim stepped aside, and going to the one 
 window of the little bedroom, drew a row of its 
 shutters into an oblique position, admitting 
 slightly more light from outside. Then, moving 
 into the farthest corner, he watched in reverent 
 silence this tremendous reunion of hearts. 
 
 With heavy, wavering feet and supported by 
 her husband, whose tears now coursed unheeded 
 down his face, the mother slowly tottered to 
 the bed and sank upon her trembling knees be 
 side it too terror-stricken to utter a sound. 
 Blinded by tears, she could not look for the 
 dreaded injuries; but feeling an arm steal 
 around her neck as she crouched there, she 
 
140 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 quickly raised her eyes and looked to find no 
 scars at all, but in their stead a happy, dreamy 
 smile bent on her. Mere words cannot depict 
 the scene that followed. Only those who have 
 once felt the light of their lives forever quenched 
 in deadly darkness and every hope and faith 
 crushed out, and have then been suddenly awak 
 ened from their unutterable despair to find their 
 unbearable grief and agony and their haunting 
 sorrow all passing away like a dream can even 
 hope to understand it. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 "LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM" 
 
 H! the days are gone, when Beauty bright 
 My heart's chain wove; 
 When my dream of life from morn to 
 
 night 
 
 Was love, still love. 
 New hope may bloom, 
 And days may come 
 Of milder, calmer beam, 
 But there's nothing half so sweet in life 
 
 As love's young dream: 
 No, there's nothing half so sweet in life 
 As love's young dream. 
 
 Though the bard to purer fame may soar, 
 
 When wild youth's past; 
 Though he win the wise, who frown'd before, 
 To smile at last; 
 He'll never meet 
 A joy so sweet 
 In all his noon of fame, 
 As when first he sung to woman's ear 
 
 His soul-felt flame, 
 
 And at every close she blush'd to hear 
 The one lov'd name. 
 
 No that hallow'd form is ne'er forgot 
 
 Which first love trac'd; 
 Still it lingering haunts the greenest spot 
 On memory's waste. 
 'Twas odour fled 
 As soon as shed; 
 'Twas morning's winged dream; 
 'Twas a light that ne'er can shine again 
 
 On life's dull stream: 
 Oh! 'twas light that ne'er can shine again 
 On life's dull stream. 
 
 Thomas Moore. 
 
 141 
 
OON they were all gathered together 
 at late breakfast in the little house; 
 and how good everything tasted 
 after the recoil of their minds from 
 their benumbing tension! Both John 
 and Gretchen were plied with end 
 less, eager questions, and had to retell over and 
 over again the wondrous story of their unique 
 adventure, adding fresh details of both facts 
 and feelings at each essay. And John was del 
 uged with praise and thanks at every turn by 
 the visitors who crowded in upon them, while 
 Jim and Jemima looked on in unspeakable pride 
 and with prayerful gratitude to God. 
 
 In the latter part of the afternoon Gretchen 
 was taken home after a fond farewell to John; 
 and the days that followed were big with young- 
 love 's revelations. In the meantime, Mr. Hum- 
 melmueller insisted upon instantly paying over 
 to Jim for John's benefit the ten thousand dol 
 lars he had so distractedly offered the day be 
 fore for his daughter's rescue. John himself 
 persistently refused to accept it personally, say 
 ing that what he had done he would never have 
 done for money. Jim was finally induced to 
 accept the trust upon the advanced plea that 
 the interest upon the amount could be used 
 
 142 
 
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 143 
 
 toward defraying the expense of sending John 
 through some eastern college upon his gradua 
 tion from high-school; a desideratum to which 
 he had longingly but hopelessly aspired. From 
 this aspiration he had hitherto been deterred 
 by both the high cost of the undertaking and 
 the probable social ostracism, if not absolute 
 rejection by the examiners and university fac 
 ulty, which the disclosure of his color would 
 precipitate. 
 
 Within the week, he and Gretchen were back 
 in their accustomed seats in the high-school; 
 and Bill Stubbs, the unplacated, found his per 
 sonal stock vastly depreciated. Now he no 
 longer dared openly voice his resentment at 
 Gretchen 's choice of companions, and, more 
 over, his hereditary, bull-headed insolence was 
 cowed by the masterful light in John's half- 
 a verted eyes. Even a cheap fool can learn wis 
 dom in experience's expensive school. 
 
 As John and Gretchen 's minds expanded, 
 their hearts but followed suit. There are two 
 human educations one of the mind, the other 
 of the heart; and the last, though but indiffer 
 ently taught or cultivated in these days of mul 
 titudinous trusts and labor unions, is the higher 
 education of the two. 
 
 Bill Stubbs was not interested either in the 
 one or the other. He went to school simply be- 
 
144 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 cause he had to, and looked forward with the 
 ignorant longing of the would-be parvenu to 
 the hearts and purses he felt himself destined 
 to ravish after the last school bell should ring 
 for him. 
 
 He was not absolutely bad, but just an ex 
 treme example of those ultra monde youths who 
 seem to suck in selfishness with their mother's 
 milk. 
 
 Yet, even such have the making in them 
 sometimes of vast worldly success, through their 
 inborn inability either to see or consider the 
 inalienable rights of others, and their fortunate 
 (!) paleness of conscience. 
 
 John and Gretchen now became more insep 
 arable than ever, and, but for a wistful sad 
 ness which would at times creep into the lat 
 ter 's heart and lie reflected upon her face, their 
 dreams of youth were all that youthful dreams 
 should be. 
 
 One night when the air was balmy with the 
 breath of autumn's aromatic first decay, they 
 met at Gretchen 's house and sat on the back 
 porch beneath the early harvest-moon. 
 
 With a delicacy unusual in one so young, 
 John had heretofore avoided any direct refer 
 ence to their close relations at the time of the 
 great lumber-yard fire, but tonight Gretchen 
 herself introduced the subject by saying : 
 
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 145 
 
 ' ' Well, John, while it is pleasant enough to 
 be living, I should have been yes full as well 
 content to die that night we slept together in 
 the tunnel." 
 
 1 ' Why ? " he asked her in surprise. 
 
 "Something tells me so I I cannot ex 
 plain, " she hurriedly replied. 
 
 John's heart beat fast, and he bit his lips 
 to keep back the impassioned words which 
 strove for utterance upon them. All he allowed 
 to pass them was: 
 
 "I'm glad you did not die." 
 
 She began again: 
 
 "They say that life contains at best more 
 pain than pleasure, and that the supreme mo 
 ment of our greatest happiness comes but once. 
 Then why tempt fate by living on if you have 
 reason to believe that that moment has already 
 come and gone and left its imprint indelibly 
 stamped upon your heart?" she asked. 
 
 "Because 'it is not all of life to live, nor all 
 of death to die.' All through our lives we see 
 visions and chase transitory shadows. Why? 
 Because there is within each sentient thing some 
 seed of immortality that must await, not only 
 the blossoming, but the harvest." 
 
 "Then you believe in immortality?" she 
 ventured. 
 
 "Certainly! There never was, nor could 
 
146 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 there conceivably be, such a beginning as the 
 beginning of this universe, put in motion simply 
 for the purpose of having it continue and pro 
 ceed to a goalless end, like the running down of 
 a boy's spinning top. There could be no pos 
 sible or plausible object in procreating a world 
 for no better purpose or greater gain than to 
 go through the task of governing infinite mo 
 tions and changes, simply to end back in the 
 nothingness of its pre-creation. What would 
 be the incentive? A fool wouldn't care to at 
 tempt it much less a God." 
 
 ' * But tell me, John ; what is love that power 
 higher still, which the wise-men say can drop a 
 feather on a human heart and tip the world's 
 scales against a thousand years of guilty, heart 
 less splendor?" 
 
 ' 1 Love, like religion, can not be explained, 
 but still can be most deeply felt and plainly un 
 derstood. ' ' 
 
 "Then you consider feeling a higher human 
 attribute than thinking?" 
 
 "Yes, sometimes." 
 
 "Talking of beginning and ending, why is 
 it that everything seems so correlated to every 
 thing else in this world of ours, that there is no 
 beginning and no end to anything except as com 
 paratively regarded?" 
 
 "That is only another indication and proof 
 
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 147 
 
 of immortality. If there were no such state as 
 immortality, all things we know could be traced 
 back to their beginnings and forward to their 
 endings, regardless of the intricacies of their 
 correlativeness with other things. " 
 
 "Well, well, well! you're getting too deep 
 for me with your original metaphysics, but what 
 is the final solution of it all?" 
 
 1 i The solution of it all, my dear young lady, 
 is Love the alpha and the omega, the begin 
 ning and the end, the conception and the cul 
 mination, the desire and its own fulfillment. 
 Verstehst du nichtt" , 
 
 Gretchen started and blushed, but proceeded 
 again in her search for the key to the infinity 
 of the finite. 
 
 1 ' Ah ! love love f From what do you deduce 
 your so remarkable conclusion that love gov 
 erns the universe!" 
 
 "From all things, abstract or concrete, but 
 principally because we are never supremely 
 happy except when we possess it and never so 
 supremely miserable as when we have lost it, 
 and happiness is the ultimate goal of every ani 
 mate thing and the only discoverable key to the 
 secret of the universe; ergo Love is It q. e. d." 
 
 "Ah! let me see: then you must believe in 
 love may I ask whether in the abstract or in 
 the concrete 1 !" 
 
148 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 "In the abstract as to existence, but in the 
 concrete as to you." 
 
 "Ye gods! was wary, cold philosophy ever 
 more neatly trapped, and made to serve the ends 
 of cupid? John, you are so very clever you may 
 hold my hand for a while. " Hand met hand 
 in that firm pressure which can mean everything 
 or nothing, good or bad, heavenly blissfulness, 
 ordinary politeness, or fawning venality; or, 
 as in this case, can interchange the threads of 
 life for intertwining. 
 
 The fickle moon, who never looks the same 
 two nights together, rode in and out among 
 the drifting clouds, calm in her regal glory; 
 the city's sounds were hushed, or fell like dis 
 tant waters ' rippling on the ear ; and daylight, 
 with its harsh exposure of unsightly things, had 
 relinquished its dominion to poetic Night with 
 her softened shapes and impressionistic sky 
 lines of transfigured trees and buildings. For 
 an interval neither one spoke. 
 
 Have you ever sat, or walked alone, with one 
 whose simple, silent presence was enough, and 
 felt that that one could understand your 
 thoughts and heart, though not a word was 
 spoken f There is a language of the heart which 
 needs no verbal medium, a telepathy of thoughts 
 and emotions that has existed between soul- 
 mates and physical-selection mates, from human 
 
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 149 
 
 beings down to the lowest in the scale of ani 
 mate things, since Adam ate the apple. 
 
 The soul has windows, but their protecting 
 lappets are opaque. He who would look in 
 through them must first clarify the surface 
 with the diamond of kindred soul. 
 
 A dog howled in the distance and the lovers ' 
 mutual meditations were broken. 
 
 "I wonder if that howl presaged the death 
 of anyone f" commented Gretchen, jokingly. 
 
 "Yes, the dog's;' 7 returned John, "his un 
 happy prophecy may prove a boomerang to the 
 poor pup if he don't quit his yawping." 
 
 "Speaking of death," put in Gretchen, "do 
 you remember those immortal lines in Long 
 fellow's 'Resignation' 
 
 'There is no flock, however watched and tended, 
 
 But one dead lamb is there; 
 There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, 
 
 But has one vacant chair'?" 
 
 "Yes, and these lines, it seems to me, are 
 really sadder than death itself; for death has 
 its compensations. The breaking heart that's 
 left behind creates, in self-preservation, an idol 
 of memory at which it may forever fall down 
 and worship. As Goethe says in his 'Wilhelm 
 Meister' 
 
 'Something the heart must have to cherish, 
 Must love, and joy, and sorrow learn; 
 
 Something with passion clasp, or perish 
 And in itself to ashes hum.' " 
 
150 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Gretchen shivered, and lowered her eyes be 
 fore his earnest gaze. 
 
 "I cannot bear to think of love and death 
 as being so closely associated, " she whispered; 
 "it seems too much like shrouding the happi 
 ness of our passion for the living in the terror 
 of their prescient loss, and so keeping death 
 with us always. " 
 
 i l God is indeed merciful in withholding from 
 us all foreknowledge of the future, or all hap 
 piness would be, even as you say, but the hap 
 piness of a living corpse/' 
 
 ' ' You are becoming terrible ! ' ' cried she, " oh ! 
 do not reason so horribly! If you wish me to 
 follow your arguments, do not let them lead 
 that way! " 
 
 "Nothing is terrible which can be analyzed. 
 The only really terrible thing in all of life is 
 loss of love. When a man bases his one great 
 hope of happiness upon one woman's changeless 
 smiles and constant, enduring approbation of 
 himself, God help him in his froward self-con 
 ceit ! As a rule, no woman really loves her hus 
 band, but regards him simply as a human means 
 towards some lower or higher personal end," 
 said John, looking at her sadly. 
 
 And which of us who have grown older, and 
 perhaps wiser, since our own adolescent belief 
 in the undying tenderness of some one particular 
 
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 151 
 
 woman, can honestly say that his utterance was 
 not inspired? 
 
 Gretchen was very young and, so far as 
 women can ever be sincere with men, she was 
 sincere with John. She had not as yet been 
 taught by other, older, women that man is only 
 a game to be played on woman's own, special, 
 financial chessboard. All women are, of neces 
 sity, more or less mercenary; because she whose 
 special province it is to receive, is always in 
 a position to coldly estimate and damn the total 
 of the contributions of him whose province it 
 is to give, i. e.: the giver's ambition is limited 
 to his own ability, while that of the receiver has 
 no personal limit. 
 
 A man generally gives his love without price. 
 A woman always, sooner or later, asks, and 
 tries to exact, a price for hers. 
 
 She often sells her heart a man but seldom 
 does it. Perhaps much of this deplorable condi 
 tion of their psychological affairs is but the nat 
 ural result of woman's inferior position, politi 
 cally and commercially, in the present state 
 of the body politic, and will gradually disap 
 pear with the coming of her sure future admit 
 tance into absolute equality of opportunity with 
 men, in every line of thought and endeavor, and 
 her resultant greater economic independence. 
 The present unjust social systems of the world 
 
152 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 cannot stand, anyhow, and will soon be changed, 
 either voluntarily or by force. 
 
 "I'm afraid you have a very poor opinion 
 of the average woman, John." Gretchen spoke 
 with some coolness. 
 
 "So much so that when I find an exception 
 to the rule I know how dearly to appreciate 
 her," he hastened to explain, in modification of 
 his severe views on femininity in general. 
 
 "And have you yet found your exception 
 your bright particular star in the female gal 
 axy your your petticoated paragon?" 
 " 'Thou saith it,' " he laughed. 
 
 "And is she pretty?" 
 
 "Let me see." 
 
 "See what, you goose?" 
 
 "Turn your face a little more to the moon 
 light." 
 
 "Oh!" She looked at the moon and then at 
 John, and shrank back into the shielding shad 
 ows. 
 
 Presently she resumed: 
 
 "Why do you talk in parables, John?" 
 
 "Because I am afraid of shocking you with 
 the naked truth of my real estimation of you, 
 if plainly and unpoetically uttered." 
 
 Gretchen became thoughtful and, from the 
 shadow, watched his face, with a covert, shy 
 tenderness in her own he did not see. Their 
 
LOVE 'S YOUNG DREAM 1 53 
 
 conversation grew constrained, and shortly John 
 excused himself on the plea of having to pre 
 pare his lessons for the morrow and arose to 
 bid her adieu, taking both her hands in his in 
 a frank way that cooled while warming her. 
 
 "Good-night, Gretchen. Don't forget me, 
 and don't take too seriously my pedantic dis 
 course. ' 9 
 
 "Oh that? I believe you more than half 
 meant it as a curtain-lecture for me. ' ' 
 
 "I only meant to show you how different 
 you are from the majority of women." 
 
 "That's better well, good-night, then, if you 
 must go." 
 
 When the sound of his retreating footsteps 
 died away, Gretchen did not at once go into the 
 house, but sat alone in the big porch-chair, rock 
 ing to her reveries. 
 
 "I think he loves me," she kept repeating 
 to herself, "but something holds him back. It 
 cannot be anything that I have said or done 
 it is something deeper, and darker." 
 
 Then, in a flash, there came to her again the 
 realization of the social gulf that lay between 
 them in the eyes of the rest of the world. She 
 bowed her head in her hands and softly wept. 
 
 " 0, if he only knew how little I regard that ! ' ' 
 she communed with herself. "He has always 
 
154 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 been a part of my life. We are bound together 
 by so many ties, it cannot be that Heaven de 
 signs to break them all for just that one piteous 
 accident of his birth! I never think of him 
 as a Negro. He does not look nor talk nor act 
 like one, except that his complexion is very 
 dark and that he seems to shrink from me with 
 a sense of modesty, arising probably, from his 
 long and continued brooding over his own sad 
 condition in life. 
 
 "Oh! I cannot understand it! I can only 
 wait and pray." 
 
 She got up from the chair sobbing, and en 
 tered the house, going direct to her own cham 
 ber to hide her tears. 
 
 John walked homeward with down-cast eyes, 
 a bitter hunger tearing at his heart. A cold 
 sweat stood out upon his forehead and he shook 
 with a freezing chill, in spite of the warmth of 
 the night. Pleading a headache, he, too, went 
 straight to his room, and there threw himself 
 headlong upon his bed, biting the pillow to keep 
 from crying out in the agony of his contem 
 plated renunciation. And throughout the long, 
 dark hours that followed, hid from all eyes save 
 those of God, he wrestled with his tortured, re 
 bellious heart as Jacob wrestled with the angel. 
 
 A moaning wind came beating from the 
 drear expanses of the distant lake; the moon 
 
LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 155 
 
 forsook the world behind black, driving clouds; 
 darkness descended like a pall on everything; 
 and love's short, bitter-ending act was over. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 "THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS:" 
 VALEDICTORY 
 
 HOPE'S 
 
 WO years went by, as years will 
 pass in spite of all that mortal man 
 can do to stem their tide two 
 years filled with such pleasures 
 as youth alone is given to know. 
 Childhood has its perquisites and 
 prerogatives of happiness, as has 
 every stage of life's journey; but youth has 
 dreams that leap by bounds. 
 
 Can you remember when you were sixteen? 
 Does my question awaken in you no cherished 
 recollections no half -forgotten griefs! 
 
 Longfellow cries: "Let the dead past bury 
 its dead!" But it cannot; for dead thoughts 
 and emotions never really die, but are only bur 
 ied alive, to arise again and confront us anew 
 on many a subsequent occasion. 
 
 There are persons hardly past the middle life 
 who are constantly harping upon the lost pleas 
 ures of the past. There are others for whom 
 no pleasure once experienced casts any softening 
 light or shadow into their later lives. Both are 
 wrong. The past, the present and the future 
 
 156 
 
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS 157 
 
 have each its appointed place and province, yet 
 no one of them is perfect in happiness without 
 the other two. 
 
 You who are white live but one life. They 
 who are born black, through no possible fault of 
 their own, have a dual life one what is; the 
 other (in imagination) what might have been, 
 had they been born white. 
 
 John was now in the senior class at high- 
 school and about to graduate with high honors; 
 yet, for the past two years indeed, from that 
 very night he left Gretchen on the porch and 
 fled to his room in all the mad infatuation of his 
 baffled first-love he had endured an unconquer 
 able condition of nervousness, doubt and misery 
 such as ordinarily situated lovers cannot con 
 ceive. Awakening to the tremendous disparity 
 between his brain and his "social" status, he 
 was stung by a thousand poignant darts of hope 
 lessness and resentment that you and I know 
 not and can never know. The world began to 
 change about him; things and persons seemed to 
 subtly alter in their phases and faces, as he now 
 saw them; and his own love appeared to grow 
 more hopeless day by day. 
 
 Gretchen herself did not change towards him, 
 but that very fact only put him the more on his 
 guard, as it added to his responsibility towards 
 her. He felt strongly that even the reward of 
 
158 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 priceless happiness to himself could not justify 
 him in bringing certain ruin upon the one he 
 loved. He tried desperately to withdraw away 
 from her society ; but she would not have it so. 
 She ignored every hint of his, and only clung 
 to him the more closely with each repulse ; until 
 he fairly gnashed his teeth in his melancholy, 
 like a tortured spirit in hell. Hers was one of 
 those rare human hearts that can love but once, 
 and that once forever. There are such hearts! 
 Besides, she understood instinctively that it was 
 his racial position, and not his heart, which 
 drove John in his attempts to keep up an ap 
 pearance of estrangement from her. It all went 
 down in nothingness before her unabashed 
 fealty to him; and struggle as he might against 
 it, he knew in his own heart of hearts that he 
 was fated to love, and to be loved by, her. What 
 was he to do? Which way should one turn in 
 his awful predicament? The world has never 
 yet found a satisfying answer to such question. 
 The doctrine that all men are created equal has 
 never been successfully upheld, outside of mere 
 political equality. "The leopard cannot change 
 his spots, " nor the black man change his color. 
 ' * Like murder, it will out. ' ' 
 
 Graduation day approached at the "Central 
 High, ' > and John, despite his mental worry and 
 heaviness of heart, had so far surpassed all 
 
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS 159 
 
 those around him in intellectual growth that he 
 was, perforce, to be the valedictorian of his 
 class, the deputied writer of the prize essay. Yet 
 his very isolation of scholastic elevation but 
 drove home to him the cruelty of his racial in 
 equality with the others. The news of his new 
 eminence was bruited about the city in ever- 
 widening circles; and when commencement day 
 finally came, hundreds of persons, attracted to 
 the school's exercises by the promise of the un 
 usual spectacle of a Negro valedictorian, 
 crowded the "hall" to see and hear him. There 
 was not even standing room left when the hour 
 struck. The usual program of pedagogic ad 
 dress, class singing, essays, declamations, et cet 
 era, was followed by the audience with some 
 what impatient good-nature; until the school's 
 principal stepped forward on the stage and an 
 nounced the final number on the program, the 
 reading of the valedictory before the diplomas 
 were given out and the work of the scholars 
 should be over forever and the class ceased to 
 be. All eyes were bent curiously upon John 
 as he came slowly forward to the edge of the 
 little ; ; stage " and seriously and diffidently 
 bowed his head before those doubly critical 
 minds expecting, as they did, nothing short of 
 genius, yet ready at the first slight indication of 
 mental weakness to "lay back" in luxurious 
 
160 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 superiority and say to themselves, l i Pretty good 
 for a nigger. " 
 
 No one, not the principal himself, knew what 
 the subject of the essay was, and even the gradu 
 ating class leaned forward with tense expect 
 ancy to catch its title when it should drop from 
 John's pale lips. With the abruptness of the 
 unprecedented it came: "Indeterminateness." 
 People looked at each other in consternation 
 and gasped, while John read on, holding his 
 ribbon- tied manuscript with tremulous hands, 
 as follows: 
 
 "The boundaries of thought, unlike those 
 physical and geographical things which man 
 can accurately measure, are indeterminate. 
 Man's world, in which he really lives, is not the 
 outward world around him, but the world of 
 constant, never-ceasing thought. And this 
 world has no beginning and no end, but in un 
 conscious, perpetual motion, goes on while hu 
 man life exists. At best it is but kaleidoscopic 
 and dream-like, and never to be trusted to re 
 peat again exactly the same outlines or colors 
 in the same mutual juxtaposition. 
 
 " Science tries to teach the exact result and 
 to trace back the causes producing that result; 
 but, after all the hundreds of years of study and 
 experiment by man, science has awakened a 
 hundred new doubts and raised a hundred new 
 
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS 161 
 
 questions for every one it has solved or an 
 swered; and the ratio of the indeterminate to 
 the determined has steadily increased from age 
 to age. Today we know far less in proportion 
 to what we see to learn than ever. Which 
 only goes to prove the immortality of creation 
 and of the Master Mind and Power which, no 
 matter how far or high we may have pro 
 gressed, has ever foreseen our requirements and 
 placed the material for all our wonderful dis 
 coveries in waiting readiness for us a million 
 years ahead of the slow and painful meander- 
 ings of our comparatively insectile brains. 
 Great as the mind may be considered which 
 charms discoveries from their hidden haunts 
 in anything animate or inanimate, how much 
 greater must be that Mind which first placed 
 them there to be discovered. 
 
 "We are, all of us, nothing but students. 
 We can create nothing It was all there before 
 us. The best and wisest of us can but simply 
 translate in some new and more original way, or 
 grasp and hold some hitherto-hidden applica 
 tion of, the truths that always were. 
 
 "And this indeterminateness is, in many 
 ways, a distinct and direct blessing to us. Take 
 for instance, life and death. Who could endure 
 to live if he were certain of the hour of his 
 death? And who bear to be born if he could 
 
162 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 foresee the trials destined to Ms lot? Then, 
 again, what incentive could anyone have to am 
 bitious effort if he could know in advance his 
 ultimate success or failure? The effort would 
 not interest him in itself, since in either case 
 the end was sure. So, * where ignorance is bliss, 
 'tis folly to be wise.' 
 
 "The heart of the mother who so fondly 
 gazes on her new-born child, is filled with the 
 glory of his imagined future achievements. 
 Fifty years later, when the actual result of that 
 child's earthly career has been determined past 
 peradventure or redemption, the mother has 
 died with those early dreams of hers for him 
 all unfulfilled and left him to his proven medi 
 ocrity. Would she have been any happier if 
 she could have known all this in advance? 
 
 "Indeterminateness is and always has been, 
 the greatest spur to progress the world of men 
 has ever known, and has, accordingly, a cor 
 responding greatness of value. Without it we 
 would all stagnate on one common, easy level, 
 with our interest in life exhausted before it was 
 fairly excited. The hunting, far more than the 
 quarry, attracts us, if we only knew it. 
 
 ' t There are those who strive for great things, 
 and others that ' also serve, who only stand and 
 wait'; but with the one, as with the other, the 
 future is brightened only and solely by expecta- 
 
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS 163 
 
 tion of good not yet assured the indeterminate- 
 ness of each yet-unsucceeding moment. 
 
 " Again, if the results of battles could be 
 foreseen by men, there would be no battles; for 
 the weaker would never go to war with the 
 stronger predestined, as they would be, to de 
 feat; but would retreat or compromise in time. 
 And here indeterminateness is a curse indeed. 
 
 "If geniuses and inventors could see ahead 
 of them the rocky heights and bottomless 
 abysses of their preordinate ways instead of the 
 single, simple, upward step necessary to fill 
 each passing hour with progress, they would 
 hesitate, aghast at the idiotic sublimity of their 
 own presumption, and we should be, as a peo 
 ple, a thousand years behind our present state 
 of advancement. 
 
 "Without uncertainty, all human efforts 
 would cease tomorrow and anarchy result. 
 
 "Love itself feeds on its very doubts, and 
 hell has no such terrors for us now as it would 
 have were its actual determinateness provable. 
 
 ' ' We who are gathered here today shall never 
 again be thus gathered together to a man. Our 
 roads shall part before the sun goes down. We 
 each and all must go our several ways, subservi 
 ent to the will and law of that one Power alone 
 Who is determinate. 
 
 "Memory itself shall fade, and millions yet 
 
164 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 unborn shall have begun to tread in our long- 
 familiar paths, ere yet the echoes of our last, 
 faint footsteps can have died away and our 
 little pains and pleasures be no more. 
 
 "If there were no other proof, indetermin- 
 ateness alone teaches us that there is a God 
 and that that God is as merciful as wise in the 
 knowledge He withholds from us while here. 
 
 " We only know, 'What ever is, is right/ and 
 that the past is but as yesterday and the grave 
 is but tomorrow. " 
 
 Not a sound was heard during John's deliv 
 ery of his essay, and the entire audience sat 
 with silent, gaping faces. 
 
 When he stopped and quietly took his seat, 
 not a person moved. The principal sat with his 
 forehead leaned upon his hand, lost to all sur 
 roundings. The big clock on the wall ticked on 
 in its little record of eternity; and when the 
 people shortly recovered from their abstraction, 
 there was no applause, but instead they spoke 
 to each other in whispers, looking about in half- 
 guilty fearfulness. 
 
 Noting this, John 's face grew red and white 
 by turns in his inability to understand the mean 
 ing of such a reception. Then a strange thing 
 happened one of those unaccountable actions 
 of a common, inspired impulse in a homogen 
 eous audience. All those at the gathering ap- 
 
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS 165 
 
 peared to rise from their seats automatically, 
 as from the pressure of a common spring. With 
 one accord they pressed forward to the plat 
 form, and as they passed by it in an unbroken 
 line, one by one they held out their hands to 
 John in silence as he instinctively rose to his 
 feet to meet them. Then they went as silently 
 back to their former seats. When the last hand 
 shake had been given, John sat down again 
 and gazed at them all with wild, unbelieving 
 eyes for a moment. Then he got to his feet and 
 tried in vain to speak, burst into tears, and hur 
 riedly left the room. 
 
 And then the spell was broken and pande 
 monium broke loose in the old hall; and the 
 storming cheers, applause and stamping of feet 
 shook the very plaster loose and caused the 
 passers-by on the street below to congregate in 
 an inquisitive, questioning crowd. While the 
 excitement was at its height, Gretchen, who was 
 in the graduating class on the platform, slipped 
 softly out after John, and, by hurrying, over 
 took him in the lower hallway of the school- 
 house. Hearing her pursuing footsteps, he 
 turned around abruptly just as he was about to 
 open the street-door, and in the dim light of 
 the gray old hallway awaited her approach 
 with a beating heart and a flushed, bewildered 
 face. He did not, even now, comprehend nor 
 
166 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 appreciate the extraordinary effect of his essay 
 upon its hearers. 
 
 Gretchen did not falter a second in her de 
 termination, but, going impulsively up to him, 
 took his face in her two hands and stared fix 
 edly and passionately into his eyes. 
 
 "0, John!'* she cried, "how could you do 
 it? It was wonderful, wonderful! But, oh! 
 dear heart, how sad, how sad! I have watched 
 you mutely suffering for months and it nearly 
 broke my heart but, oh ! I did not dream that 
 one so young as you could already have suffered 
 so much as to have written that!" 
 
 Her rosy face was white now, and the slow 
 tears flowed against her will. Her lips trembled 
 piteously, but she held her ground and would 
 not let him go. 
 
 John took her hands and covered them with 
 contrite kisses, saying as he released them: 
 
 "I am so sorry to have pained you you 
 who alone can read my heart aright, and for 
 whom I would gladly die. 
 
 "May God reward and keep you, for you 
 know that I can not!" 
 
 Then, unable longer to control his emotions, 
 he forced his feet to turn aside, and with a 
 stifled sob passed out the door, leaving her 
 standing immovable, there where he had left 
 her, with outstretched arms; and on her face 
 
THE LEOPARD AND HIS SPOTS 167 
 
 was the agonized look of one who had ' l watched 
 him as a friend would watch beside a dying 
 friend." 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 BILL STUBBS COMMITS THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 
 
 |OHN'S diploma was delivered to 
 his parents for him after he had 
 left the hall. They soon followed 
 him home in some trepidation; 
 and there they greatly reassured 
 him with the enthusiastic encomiums of the au 
 ditors, which they retailed him. His heart re 
 bounded from its abnormal sensitiveness, and 
 he could now contemplate the whole affair in 
 its true proportions. He even began to feel the 
 thrill of conscious victory. 
 
 The following summer vacation was a mem 
 orable one to him. Although he would, pos 
 sibly, have been admitted to several universi 
 ties or colleges upon his high-school diploma 
 alone, he preferred to pass the regular examina 
 tions for entering Yale University. The pre 
 liminary examinations were held in Chicago, 
 for the western applicants for admission, early 
 in the summer, and these he passed without 
 "conditions"; so he was now qualified for the 
 freshman class, with no necessity for "brush 
 ing up" or "cramming" for any further, final 
 "exams" at the university itself in the fall. 
 
 168 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 169 
 
 This left him entirely free to enjoy his whole 
 vacation time, untrammeled by studies and with 
 full mental relaxation; and he threw up his hat 
 in boyish exultation. 
 
 The fund put aside in trust for him by 
 Gretchen's father at the time of the fire, had 
 now perceptibly increased in amount, and its 
 re-investment to still better advantage, with 
 what his foster-parents could afford to add to 
 it, would furnish an income amply sufficient for 
 his tuition and modest needs while at college. 
 His foster-parents were prospering and did not 
 need him at home. He had, therefore, no finan 
 cial worries and looked forward to his college 
 career with pleasurable exhilaration. 
 
 No man or woman, howsoever old, can think 
 back upon the period of his or her university 
 matriculation all unmoved. It is, at least, a 
 high-light of the past; and the bright pictures 
 of imagination and the momentary glory of 
 achievement that were so pleasant then, can 
 never lose their precious hold upon the aging 
 heart. 
 
 John felt as few who are not black have ever 
 felt, the rainbow radiance of that mental view; 
 but o'er it all there often fell the old dread 
 shadow of his racial inequality. 
 
 Mind you, I do not broadly claim that every 
 Negro mourns over his race so bitterly as John 
 
170 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 did. He was an exception to the usual run of 
 Negroes, bred to serve as laborers or servants : 
 but so it was with him. 
 
 And yet, with it all, the days were halcyon 
 enough, and friends were kind and life held 
 many sparkling gems of interest for him ' ' full 
 many a gem of purest ray serene. " Like some 
 young, wild animal running free, he stopped to 
 nibble where the prospect pleased. 
 
 After her tender, pathetic appeal to John in 
 the hallway of the old high-school through 
 whose portals they were never again to pass as 
 scholars, he almost gave up his struggle against 
 the dictates of his own heart, and saw much of 
 Gretchen, both at her home and in the parks 
 and distant fields and woods through which 
 they frequently wandered together on sunny 
 days. 
 
 Who would repeat in chilly type all that the 
 birds sang to them, all that the flowers hinted, 
 all the idle, joyous words that passed between 
 them, and their youthfully serious platitudes on 
 life? These things, seemingly so trivial and un 
 important, were but new translations of the 
 same old tale of love. 
 
 And yet they did not speak of love to each 
 other openly and directly. That pure restraint 
 which holds the idol of the heart too sacred to 
 be idly broached in words or idly handled lest 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 171 
 
 it be broken or desecrated, kept back the sen 
 tences that oft-times trembled on their lips. But 
 Love has a thousand eyes, a thousand kinds of 
 tongues, and ears attuned to myriad hidden 
 meanings. He has no need of mere human 
 words to make his young disciples see and hear 
 and understand after he has thrown his mantle 
 o'er their shoulders. 
 
 Ah, Love Love! Thou art so young, so 
 frail! Thou diest on the nuptial bed! There 
 is no love after marriage only self-interest, 
 disillusion, repulsion, hatred and reaction; or, 
 more happily, esteem, conscientious copartner 
 ship, admiration and unselfishness; the last the 
 greatest of them all. The heart still revolves 
 about its little sun of happiness, but more 
 slowly and in a less ecstatic orbit. Fortunate 
 indeed are those to whom a child or more be 
 born; for then the shadow of the old love falls 
 once more upon them, and the evanescent, in 
 tangible felicity of their former youth is tran 
 substantiated into enduring maternal and pa 
 ternal tenderness of affection. In the glamour 
 of their children 's lives they live their own lives 
 over again. 
 
 But while John and Gretchen were thus col 
 laborating in the production of their living 
 
172 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 idyll, serene in their lover-like belief 
 
 "That Nature never hints in vain, 
 Nor prophesies amiss," 
 
 Bill Stubbs was far from idle in another way. 
 
 He had graduated with the rest in John 
 and Gretchen's class at the high-school, the 
 professors, acting as a single body, obligingly 
 marking his final examination papers just high 
 enough to let him slip through, in pliable com 
 pliance with their mutual desire to be forever 
 rid of each other. 
 
 Stubbs had no collegiate ambitions, he 
 openly opining that there was "a hell of a lot 
 more money in ' sticking pigs' than in writing- 
 books "; and, as " Satan finds some mischief 
 still for idle hands to do," he set about devising 
 some scheme to injure John, if possible, before 
 he should have started for Yale. 
 
 He hated him cordially, with a hate that fed 
 upon each new triumph of the latter, no matter 
 how honestly and unaffectedly it was brought 
 about and borne. 
 
 Taking advantage of the purely conven 
 tional hospitality of the Hummelmuellers, he 
 called at their house frequently, and tried to 
 make himself at least superficially agreeable 
 to them. He was not unaware of the fact that 
 they tolerated him simply out of ingrained po 
 liteness just because he was a human being 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 173 
 
 and an acquaintance; but such half-hearted 
 welcome did not feaze him in the least. To 
 tally lacking in proper respect for others, he 
 had, himself, no self-respect. 
 
 The role of interloper and eavesdropper just 
 suited him. It gave him an abortive sense of 
 power to sneak up softly behind others whom 
 he suspected to be talking about him (or, for 
 that matter, about anything else of a^ confi 
 dential nature), and to note the embarrassment 
 in their faces on suddenly becoming aware that 
 they had been unwarrantably placed by him 
 under his personal espionage. He seemed to 
 be lost to all sense of personal shame, actually 
 believing that what he did was considered by 
 those around him as evidencing his " smart 
 ness. " 
 
 He employed this "talent" to such good 
 purpose on the "Island" that he eventually 
 overheard some slight reference to John's first 
 arrival there as a foundling. This gave him 
 his needed "cue," and it was not long before 
 he had wormed the whole story out of a certain 
 estimable but garrulous old woman whom 
 Gretchen had visited, with himself as escort, 
 on an errand of mercy. 
 
 He later visited alone this loyal old lady, 
 and posed to her as a warm friend of John's; 
 and he so gained upon her confidence by some 
 
174 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 petty, inexpensive act of chivalry towards her, 
 that she took it for granted that he was a 
 gentleman. 
 
 She supposed, since he appeared to be so 
 intimate with the Hummelmuellers and was a 
 recent classmate of John's, that he must be 
 already in possession of the facts of John's early 
 history which were so widely known to the 
 "Goose Islanders"; and she presumed, naturally 
 enough, that he was not lacking in that univer 
 sal discretion which had heretofore sealed the 
 lips of all her neighbors when in John's pres 
 ence, as to the latter 's being only the adopted 
 son of Jim and Jemima and not their own, nat 
 ural offspring. 
 
 Had she dreamed for a minute of the use 
 to which Stubbs intended to put her delight 
 fully reminiscent information, she would have 
 given up her false teeth rather than to have 
 uttered a word of it to him. 
 
 Now, it is a mark an encouraging indica 
 tion, of the inherent goodness of heart in the 
 human race that, though the fact may be 
 known to hundreds who daily come in contact 
 with them, the cases in which children legally 
 adopted in their infancy are deliberately told 
 by others that those whom they have learned 
 to regard with love and respect as their own 
 rightful parents are really bound to them by 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 175 
 
 no ties of blood, are very few and far between. 
 This is the one secret which the many instinct 
 ively keep from the few; the secret that even 
 a woman can keep from those whose hearts its 
 disclosure would so deeply and unnecessarily 
 wound, even though it did them no material 
 injury. 
 
 Sooner or later most adopted children find 
 out their true relations to their foster-parents ; 
 but fortunately, their sad enlightenment gener 
 ally comes later in life, when they have grown 
 old enough to understand and appreciate the 
 strength and nobleness of the love that first 
 took them in, and still holds them fully as dear 
 as children of their foster-parents' own loins 
 might have been to them. 
 
 Then the blow is softened to the adopted 
 ones by their recollections of their foster-pa 
 rents' long, unselfish devotion; and while their 
 hearts may bleed for a time, the wound is often 
 healed without a scar. 
 
 More often than not, where the secret is 
 prematurely disclosed to those concerned, the 
 disclosing is done by some unthinking school 
 mate and companion or some half vicious, en 
 vious child, who "know not what they do." 
 
 But to premeditate in cold blood such un 
 timely divulgence and then clandestinely carry 
 out such design for revenge alone, is, thank 
 
176 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 God! very, very unusual much more so than 
 downright murder! And no one needs to be 
 told why. It is the "Unpardonable Sin." 
 
 About a week after Bill Stubbs' pregnant 
 interview with the old lady on the " Island, " 
 John came home late one night, after escort 
 ing Gretchen back from a down-town theatre, 
 where they had both shed honest, heartfelt 
 tears over the pathetic play of " Hazel Kirke." 
 
 At the door Jemima handed him a soiled 
 envelope that had come through the mail ad 
 dressed to him in an evidently disguised hand. 
 
 Attaching no particular importance to it, 
 he kissed his foster-mother good night and took 
 it with him into his own bedroom, where he 
 laid it unopened on the bureau while he un 
 dressed. He forgot it for the moment in his 
 fresh memories of the agonies undergone by 
 the doomed but devoted mother in the story of 
 Hazel Kirke when her own son lay dying in 
 her arms, and all the while kept hoping that 
 he might meet his own mother in Heaven ; and 
 she dared not tell him that he was even then 
 in that mother's living arms, held tight against 
 that mother's own breaking, dying heart, that 
 still must go on denying itself and him, even 
 as his little feet were entering at the Portal of 
 the City Celestial, from which she could no 
 longer hold him back through which portal 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 177 
 
 she even could not pass beside him hand-in- 
 hand, as she so fervently prayed to do. 
 
 " Could anything in real life be so sad as 
 that?" John wondered. His fingers were reach 
 ing for the key to turn out the lamp, when his 
 gaze again fell on the envelope. Mechanically he 
 took it up and turned it over in his hands. He 
 could think of no one who was likely to have 
 written him, as he had no regular correspond 
 ents and certainly none who wrote so peculiar 
 a "hand." Still he suspected no evil in it. He 
 tore open the envelope. It contained but one 
 soiled, single sheet half covered with badly writ 
 ten, illiterate words. He looked at first for the 
 signature. There was none. It was that cow 
 ardly, criminal, snake-like thing, an anonymous 
 letter. 
 
 His brows bent over it in a puzzled frown, 
 he began to read it. Its curt, damnable con 
 tents were as follows: 
 
 "Mistur jon Maning, 
 
 Deer Sir: the riter hoo miens wel bi yu sins yu wunc 
 dun him a gud favur now taks his Pen in Han to tel yu 
 sum thin yu ott to no for yure own Pertekshun the Nagurs 
 wich yu think ar yure Parunts ar not so you can ast 
 them yoursel, this is strate. 
 
 a frende." 
 
 John's first impulse was to tear the letter 
 to pieces in indignation; then its uncouth word 
 ing and spelling made him laugh, and he hesi 
 tated. He read it over again, and his face paled 
 
178 EEIC MAROTTE 
 
 at the thought of its possible greatness of sig 
 nificance. It began to worry him. He thought 
 rapidly: 
 
 " Could there be any truth in its bald asser 
 tion? Were Jim and Jemima not his own pa 
 rents, after all? Who was he, then? To what 
 previous condition of life might he not really 
 have been born?" 
 
 "Oh! it must be all a malicious lie a prac 
 tical joke! Who could have sent the letter? 
 Why? What 'protection' did he need?" 
 
 The poison in the note commenced to rankle 
 within him; yet hopefully he thought: 
 
 "Ah! then perhaps he was not a Negro at 
 all!" 
 
 His heart oppressed him; he could not 
 breathe; he threw open the window-sash and 
 looked out on the night for inspiration. The 
 veins on his forehead pulsed with excitement; 
 the quick trip-hammer of moral fright pounded 
 in his heart. 
 
 "He must look into this! No, he must not! 
 How could he ask his mother such a question? 
 she who had loved him so ! " 
 
 "Why had not his parents his good, tender, 
 loving parents, told him all this before, when 
 they knew how he suffered from the taunts of 
 his schoolmates, who called him 'a nigger'? 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 179 
 
 Probably because there was no truth in that 
 vile note, and he was their own son." 
 
 He called up before his mind's eye the faces 
 of his foster-parents, and going to the mirror, 
 compared his own face with his mental picture 
 of theirs. 
 
 "No; there was certainly no traceable re 
 semblance between his and that of either of the 
 others!" 
 
 "But he must be cautious he must not hurt 
 their feelings or appear to doubt them. God! 
 would this suspense never end? What was 
 going to happen to him now?" 
 
 "Well; he would try to sleep and forget it 
 all. To-morrow, maybe, he could think more 
 clearly. But could he sleep now with this ter 
 rible revelation hanging over him, suspended 
 there like the sword of Damacles? It was hor 
 rible horrible ! 
 
 "Was he actually himself, or was he some 
 one else? Why not someone else? Was it not 
 strange after all, that one should be one's self, 
 and not someone else? How would it seem to 
 occupy the body, be controlled by the spirit, of 
 another?" 
 
 His brain reeled and whirled; he thought of 
 his foster-parents, of Gretchen, of God. He 
 fell down upon his knees and prayed for 
 
180 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 strength and guidance to combat his awful in 
 decision to decide aright and wrong no one. 
 
 Hours passed and he had not stirred. At 
 six o'clock in the morning Jemima, coming in 
 to call him, found him sound asleep on his knees 
 beside the unused bed. His prayers had been 
 in a measure answered ; for God had ' l given his 
 beloved sleep. " 
 
 He awoke with a start, and gazed at his fos 
 ter-mother confusedly, his mind still a blank. 
 Then memory came knocking at the door of 
 his consciousness, and he threw himself onto 
 the bed, trembling and afraid. 
 
 Jemima, agitated in her turn by his unac 
 countable behavior, smoothed back the hair 
 from his forehead and whispered: "What was 
 it John, dear a bad dream? Go to sleep again 
 and forget it. I'll call you a little later. There 
 is no need of your getting up so early now, 
 anyway." 
 
 He "turned his face to the wall" and cow 
 ered under the bed clothes in a "blue funk." 
 He dared not face her, in his fear of betraying 
 his dread secret, but gave her some smothered, 
 irrelevant reply in dismissal. 
 
 Greatly perturbed, but humoring him in this 
 strange new whim of his, she "patted" the 
 spread about him and, sure now that something 
 distressing was on his mind, she tiptoed out 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 181 
 
 of the room, promising herself to keep a watch 
 ful ear and eye upon him from the kitchen. 
 
 As she brushed past the foot of the bed, her 
 foot struck something that faintly rustled, and, 
 looking down, she espied the unfolded letter 
 where John had dropped it in his semi-delirium. 
 
 Wonderingly she stooped and picked it up, 
 remembering she had handed John some such 
 letter the night before. With a mother's priv 
 ilege she glanced casually at its message. Her 
 eye was caught by the prominent words u Na- 
 gurs" and "Parunts." She took the letter 
 along with her to the kitchen and called to her 
 husband. There she explained to him how she 
 had found John asleep in prayer and his singu 
 lar reception of her, and held out the letter 
 to him, saying she was suspicious of it. He re 
 quested her to read it aloud, as he had acciden 
 tally left his spectacles at the shop the night 
 before. 
 
 As she read to him the last three lines of 
 the poisonous note, a great rage obsessed him. 
 He tore the letter from her hands, and, carry 
 ing it to the kitchen window, read it himself, 
 holding it up close to his near-sighted eyes, to 
 make sure there could be no mistake about its 
 purport. His clenched, powerful hands rose 
 above his head as he gave vent to his terrible 
 anger with fiercely shaking arms, calling down 
 
182 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 such anathemas upon the head of the writer 
 of the letter as would have curdled that per 
 son's very blood to hear them. He glanced 
 about him belligerently, in an elemental, Ethio 
 pian ferocity, seeking for someone to destroy. 
 He turned to speak to his wife she had fainted. 
 
 At once his fury left him, and he gathered 
 her up like an infant in his great, leonine grasp 
 and laid her on their bed. He got water and 
 hartshorn to revive her, and applied these re 
 storatives, trying to forget his own eating de 
 spair in ministering to her greater misery. 
 
 Suddenly she opened her eyes and attempted 
 to get up. He forced her gently back upon 
 the pillow and pushed the door* to with a back 
 ward thrust of his foot, lest John should awake 
 again and hear them. 
 
 Then her heart broke and, throwing her 
 arms about his neck, she cried and cried and 
 cried, her husband mingling his own tears with 
 hers and cursing the contemptible interloper 
 between each paroxysm of grief. 
 
 But even grief and agony cannot last for 
 ever, and at last the two miserable ones could 
 talk together calmly. 
 
 "What should they do now! Should they 
 deny the truth of the letter's statement? Or 
 should they risk telling John the whole story? 
 Would he forgive them at this late hour for 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 183 
 
 their loving deception? Would he still love 
 them? Would he, even involuntarily, turn from 
 them now because he might not be a Negro, 
 while they, themselves, were surely black? " 
 
 "How could they meet him tranquilly? What 
 could they say to him? If they did not tell 
 him the truth now, would he not curse them if 
 he found it out later by himself? Had they best 
 return the letter to his room, and let him ap 
 proach the dread subject himself; or should 
 they make a quick, clean breast of it, and get it 
 over with?" 
 
 "Oh! why, of all things, must this cross 
 be laid upon all their lives just as John was 
 leaving them for college? Would he not be 
 come estranged from them now, in that distant 
 place and among new and higher associates f " 
 
 "Let them pray, and perhaps the good God 
 who had never yet deserted them in their times 
 of trial, would put into their hearts what they 
 must do!" 
 
 Eising from their bended knees at last, with 
 that calmer determination that comes after 
 prayer, they proceeded arm-in-arm to John's 
 door and opened it softly, so that, unseen, they 
 might feast their swimming eyes on him once 
 more before the awful moment when they must 
 meet him face-to-face, and he would come to 
 
184 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 know "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing 
 but the truth." 
 
 For God had told them, in His Own myster 
 ious way, to tell it to this, their beloved son 
 had told them in His language of the soul, that 
 He would not "let this bitter cup pass from 
 them." 
 
 There came no sound from John's room. 
 They knocked on the door to attract his atten 
 tion, grown timid and deferential now in their 
 new humility. No answer. They pushed open 
 the door- wider and looked in. The room was 
 vacant He was gone. 
 
 Breakfast unthought of, they distractedly 
 made ready to follow him. 
 
 ' ' Where ? Anywhere - - everywhere ! He 
 must not be allowed to go away alone like this ! 
 What desperate thing might he not do in his 
 present mental state!" 
 
 They hurried about the "Island," asking 
 those whom they met as quietly and indiffer 
 ently as they could, if they had seen John. No 
 one had, it seemed. Their uneasiness grew more 
 importunate, and they had about determined to 
 notify the police by telephone, when Jemima 
 happened to think of the possibility of finding 
 him at the Hummelmuellers ; and, though they 
 felt that that was probably the last place John 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 185 
 
 would have been apt to go in Ms desire to hide 
 his trouble, they ventured there as a final resort. 
 
 To their surprise, Mrs. Hummelmueller was 
 waiting for them at the house door. 
 
 "Yes," she replied to their stammered ques 
 tion, "John is here." 
 
 After Jemima left his room, John had ab 
 ruptly recollected that he had not put away 
 or secreted the fatal letter, and he got up to 
 search for it. He could find it nowhere. He 
 pondered anew: 
 
 "Here was a new complication! Could 
 Jemima have found and read it?" 
 
 He listened at the partition and heard his 
 foster-parents' wild lamentations. He shiv 
 ered, and cried out under his breath: 
 
 "0 God! be merciful!" 
 
 "It was too late! They must have seen the 
 letter, and yes its bold insinuations must be 
 true; for they would never have been so af 
 fected as that by a refutable lie!" 
 
 "Well, then; it was all over! What next? 
 Would his foster-parents believe he could be 
 so base, so ungrateful, as to glory in the faint 
 chance now disclosed to him of proving him 
 self not a Negro while remembering still that 
 they were black? Was it not more natural to 
 expect that, since they had fathered and moth- 
 
186 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 ered him, they must have known that he, too, 
 was a Negro I" 
 
 "He must have more time to think it out. 
 He must not witness their agony at this unex 
 pected denouement! He could not look upon 
 his mother's shame, his father's humiliation !" 
 
 "And, again, who, now, was he, himself! 
 He still had no evidence at all that he was white. 
 Why not more reasonably a Negro ! How did he 
 come to be there in the first place?" 
 
 He could no longer control either his mind 
 or his body. The once-loved room became un 
 bearable to him a prison. He dressed rapidly 
 and leaped out through the window. But out 
 side he commenced to wonder again, doubt- 
 ingly: 
 
 "Where now! What did he want to do! 
 What could he do! Go back and confront his 
 former father and mother ! No ! ' ' 
 
 "Ah; he had it now! He would go to 
 Gretchen. He must see her at once, and tell her 
 all; and if then she turned from him, he was 
 lost, lost, lost! And then to the river! 
 
 His mind grew numb; a vise seemed press 
 ing round his brain; and yet his mind worked, 
 spasmodically and beyond any governing of it 
 by his conscious will. 
 
 "Well, what of it all! It would soon be 
 all over with him now! What was one man 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 187 
 
 more or less in the great world? A drop of 
 rain in the sky a vigintillionth of an iota of 
 the great scheme of the universe !" 
 
 "Bah! it was easily done one needn't suffer 
 much a look, a leap, a splash, a momentary, 
 choking spasm, a spreading, circling, ripple on 
 the surface of the water, and The End!" 
 
 "How easy! Why had he not thought of 
 it before? He was now only an encumberer of 
 the earth, anyhow an ever-present source of 
 pain and miserable regrets to both himself and 
 others. " 
 
 "What did life all amount to? Just a strug 
 gle that generally ended in failure and dis 
 ease! " 
 
 "Oh! he was so tired, so tired! if only he 
 could rest could forget!" 
 
 "But Gretchen! No, he could not go with 
 out seeing her once more. Maybe she would, 
 all-unsuspecting, let him kiss her t Good-bye/ 
 She would not know it was to be his last ' Good 
 bye' forever. God! it was hard to leave her!" 
 Tears came to his dry, burning eyes. 
 
 All this time his feet, ignoring the ravings 
 of his brain, were subconsciously, but steadily, 
 carrying him onward towards Gretchen 's home! 
 He looked up at the house, amazed to find him 
 self in front of it. 
 
 "How came he there; he had no recollection 
 
188 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 of coming. Was he mad? Or was he walking 
 in his sleep! When would he wake up?" 
 
 Yet, like one in a dream, he rang the door 
 bell without hesitation. His actions, his words, 
 were all instinctive. His faculties, his senses, 
 seemed to be performing their functions re 
 gardless of any mental or muscular volition 
 upon his part. He did not know till after each 
 movement, each word, was already made or 
 spoken, that they had happened. He simply 
 found himself doing and saying what he did 
 and said. It was as if he were idly contem 
 plating the words and actions of another being. 
 
 It was still only seven o'clock in the morn 
 ing, and Gretchen had not yet arisen. Mrs. 
 Hummelmueller came to the door herself (her 
 husband having gone early to the brewery, as 
 was his wont), and, instantly sensing from his 
 vacant "stare," his unkempt appearance, his 
 colorless voice, that something was radically 
 wrong with the boy, conducted him quietly into 
 the library without betraying to him her own 
 alarm. 
 
 John had simply said to her in a dazed sort 
 of way: 
 
 "I want to see Gretchen; where is she? Tell 
 her I must see her, and at once." 
 
 He had no consciousness of the unconven- 
 tionality of the early hour no thought for any- 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 189 
 
 thing but to see Gretchen. It was now his one 
 fixed, clear idea. It was the one visible goal 
 his blinded spirit could perceive ahead. 
 
 Mrs. Hummelmueller left him and hurriedly 
 summoned her daughter, warning her in ad 
 vance to be courageous, to be cool and collected, 
 as she feared that John was under the influence 
 of some temporary aberration. 
 
 Gretchen deftly slipped on a blue silk Jap 
 anese kimono and her slippers, and, without 
 waiting to "put up" her hair, ran down the 
 wide stairway. At the library door she paused 
 for a second to observe John. He was seated in 
 an arm-chair, his elbows on his knees, his face 
 in his hands, the picture of mental degradation. 
 He heard her and looked up slowly, with a hag 
 gard, hunted, cringing face and glance. 
 
 In that instant Gretchen changed from a 
 girl to a woman. She had been brought ab 
 ruptly to the parting of the ways twixt youth 
 and womanhood. Although her heart bled for 
 her lover, even without knowing what had be 
 fallen him, she was not afraid. The bravery of 
 motherhood was come upon her. 
 
 Her face was calm, even majestic. She came 
 slowly towards him in her loose draperies, her 
 gorgeous, sun-lit hair falling all about her brow 
 like a blue and gold angel in a vision. 
 
 John watched her in a stupefied inaction, a 
 
190 ERIC MARGATE' 
 
 great, holy wonder in his blood-shot eyes. She 
 spoke no word, but passed one soft hand en 
 dearingly through his unbrushed locks, and 
 taking a hand of his in her other one, led him 
 a captive to the leather library lounge, and 
 made him lie down upon it. 
 
 She brought a light chair, and seated her 
 self beside him, taking his hand in hers again 
 and gently stroking it. He seemed stricken 
 dumb, waiting patiently for her to speak just 
 as a "true believer" might have awaited the 
 prophetic utterance of some worshipped oracle 
 in the days of old. 
 
 At last she asked him in a low, consoling 
 tone : ' ' What is it, John, dear ? ' ' 
 
 He drew his hand away from hers, and hid 
 ing his shamed face in both his palms, gasped 
 out between them in the strained voice of one 
 utterly broken in spirit: "Oh! Gretchen! I've 
 lost my father and mother!" 
 
 The girl's face blanched; her form grew 
 rigid, then relapsed. This was terrible! fright 
 ful! She was not prepared for such a blow. 
 She had expected trouble, but not death! It 
 stunned her. She strove for delicately tactful 
 words in which to question him further. 
 
 "Are they then, dead?" she faltered. 
 
 John sat up-right quickly. 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 191 
 
 "Dead! Dead! Oh, no; they're not dead. 
 Who said they were dead?" 
 
 Gretchen gave a great gasp of gratitude. 
 Her heart, which had almost ceased to beat, now 
 began to pump furiously. "Why, John; you 
 just now said you had lost them." 
 
 "Yes; I've lost them; but in life, not death!" 
 
 "Tell me all about it, dearest," she coaxed. 
 
 And John did. His wandering senses re 
 turned to him at this wonderful girl's wooing 
 command, and he told her all. 
 
 A tremendous sigh of relief welled up from 
 Gretchen 's tender heart as she divined the real 
 situation. She cried a little, but smiled at him 
 through her tears as beautiful as a " sunshine- 
 shower. ' ' 
 
 When he had finished, she sat down along 
 side him on the big lounge and put her half -bare 
 arms around him, laying her warm, rosy face 
 against his. He knew then that all his fears 
 of her forsaking him in his sorrow and shame 
 were groundless ephemeral things blown away 
 forever upon the breath of her undying love for 
 him. 
 
 He raised her farther arm, and taking its 
 tapering wrist in one hand, he drew the back 
 of her own slowly to his lips and kissed it 
 lingeringly, his other palm supporting hers; 
 her other arm about his neck. His eyes were 
 
192 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 lowered before her in reverent adoration. She 
 looked away across the room towards the great 
 white light of morning streaming in at the win 
 dow; and upon her face was that dreaming glory 
 of perfect peace and love which passeth under 
 standing. 
 
 "What shall I do, Gretchen, love?" timidly 
 he asked at length. 
 
 "Go and tell your foster-parents that you 
 ' know all, ' and that it will make not the slight 
 est difference between you; that you but love 
 them all the more now that you have found out 
 and can realize their true nobility You do, do 
 you not?" 
 
 "I do! But what will all the people around 
 here think of me when they learn of this thing?" 
 
 Gretchen smiled adorably. 
 
 "You need not worry your head about that, 
 dear heart; everyone on the t Island/ has al 
 ready known it for years; that is, everybody 
 but you; but they were, every one of them, too 
 generous, too kind, too fond of you for your 
 own self, ever to tell you of it. They are your 
 friends, John never fear." 
 
 And thereupon John gained the strange ex 
 perience of hearing from his own lover's sweet 
 lips his first account of the memorable, but still 
 unexplained, incident of his unheralded coming 
 to the Mannings on that Christmas Eve of long 
 
AND UPON HER FACE WAS THAT DREAMING GLORY OF PERFECT 
 PEACE AND LOVE THAT PASSETH UNDERSTANDING" 
 
THE UNPARDONABLE SIN 193 
 
 ago. In a way, she had known more about him, 
 than he had known about himself. 
 
 Just as Gretchen completed the story, Mrs. 
 Hummelmueller announced Jim and Jemima, 
 and ushered them at once into the library. 
 
 John sprang up, Gretchen following him. 
 His foster-parents stood close together before 
 him, with downcast, appealing eyes, just like 
 two naughty children caught in some mischief 
 and waiting their merited reprimand or pun 
 ishment. Jemima lifted up her face; her eyes 
 were horror-haunted; her husband groaned 
 aloud. 
 
 For one breathless moment all the dramatis 
 personae of the pathetic scene stood pale and 
 motionless as marble statues. 
 
 Then John stepped forward quietly, his face 
 working with suppressed emotions ; and placing 
 an arm about the neck of each of his foster- 
 parents, kissed them both upon the mouth, say 
 ing simply, but with an unmistakable sincerity: 
 "Mother! Father! I love you!" 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 'ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER' 
 
 ]LD Doctor Time came round every 
 day withhis big, slow internes, the 
 Hours and his nimble little nurses, 
 the Minutes, and, before long, all 
 lof the little family at the cottage 
 were mentally convalescent, their hearts all the 
 stronger and more loving for the crisis through 
 which they had just passed, to come forth so 
 purified and true. 
 
 Autumn rolled around at last, and with it 
 came the hour of John's departure for New 
 Haven, a great event to more than himself alone. 
 Many of his old schoolmates and neighbors 
 gathered at the depot, bringing flowers and lit 
 tle parting gifts for him, and poor John 's heart 
 was very full. 
 
 His foster-parents and the Hummelmuellers 
 followed him into the sleeping-car with many 
 final, fond adjurations, and sat beside him until 
 the conductor's call of "All Aboard!" cut short 
 their last farewells. Gretchen passed out of the 
 car the last of all, John accompanying her to 
 the vestibule. For a moment the two were alone 
 together; then what Gretchen did there will 
 
 194 
 
ABSENCE 195 
 
 never be told, but should John live a thousand 
 years he never could forget it. 
 
 The train sped on with its customary burden 
 of human hearts. Grief, penury, despair and 
 woe joy, affluence, hope and happiness, 
 knocked elbows with vice and virtue, with cu 
 riosity and apathy, wisdom and ignorance, phil 
 anthropy and cupidity a little world on 
 wheels. In due time and without mishap the 
 train arrived at its New York destination, and 
 John had his baggage transferred across that 
 city to the New York, New Haven and Hartford 
 Railway station, where he entrained again for 
 the second stage of his journey, and finally set 
 foot upon the li sacred" collegiate soil of old 
 New Haven, The Mecca of so many aspiring, 
 beardless youths before him. 
 
 He gazed about him with a hesitant but lively 
 expectancy, having made friends with no other 
 prospective or already-matriculated Yale men 
 on the train, although there were a number of 
 fellows on board who looked the part. But he 
 could discover nothing particularly suggestive 
 of the college life or spirit until after he had 
 registered at the New Haven House, which, be 
 ing the leading hotel at that time, was crowded 
 to the roof with students and their parents, 
 ' l their sisters, their cousins and their aunts. ' ' 
 
 When he had secured a place there to sleep 
 
196 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 for the night and had dined, he sauntered out 
 alone, up past the old Campus, with its enor 
 mous, ancient elms and its rail fence enclosing, 
 together with more modern buildings, the 
 Chapel, Old South Middle and other dilapidated 
 dormitories and rookeries that dated back al 
 most beyond the ken of man. 
 
 It was evening; the moon shone down in 
 dreamy splendor on the dew-starred grass, the 
 worn brick walks, the rustling, glinting leaves 
 and the quaint old New England architecture of 
 the town. 
 
 The top rails of the old, time-honored fence 
 were black with squatting figures, some, pipe-in- 
 mouth, wafting up the incense of slow-curling 
 wreaths of aromatic smoke which faded like 
 gossamery cobwebs into the still, pale air, and 
 all with both hands in their pockets. 
 
 As he stood wavering and enchanted at the 
 corner of classic Elm and Church streets, drink 
 ing in with quivering nostrils and dilating eyes 
 the soul-inspiring spirit of the college scene, 
 there rose upon the crisp, clear autumn evening 
 air, apparently without premeditation, yet sim 
 ultaneously from every throat upon the entire 
 top line of the fence, the peacefully opening bars 
 of that never-to-be-forgotten Yale song, 
 "I-EEL." As each succeeding stanza of the 
 venerable song was reached, it was taken up by 
 
ABSENCE 197 
 
 the particular class to which it referred, and 
 the song was continued with increasing speed 
 and gusto, all the classes joining in vociferously 
 on the chorus. 
 
 At the beginning of the final stanzas the 
 light, joyous air was suddenly changed to a 
 slow, deep and measured dirge; and the rich, 
 mellow voices of the seniors, who lead it, lin 
 gered over each word and note with such strange 
 touch of infinite sorrow and last adieus, that an 
 irresistible thrill tingled along John's nerves 
 and spinal column and brought his heart to his 
 throat, and wrapped the moon for him in an 
 irised mist of tears. As the last note of the 
 faltering, funereal chorus died away in soul- 
 stricken grief, the whole crowd abruptly began 
 the chorus all over again, and rattled through 
 it in quick, staccato shouts, fortissimo, and with 
 ever-accelerated time, till its last note ended 
 in a short-drawn howl, to be followed by that 
 modernized, nerve-tearing, ear-splitting, Indian 
 warwhoop, the Yale yell. 
 I-EEL.* 
 
 As Freshmen, first we come to Yale; 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 Examinations make us pale, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. 
 
 CHOBUS: 
 Presto Eel-i-eeM-eel-i-Yale, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 Eel-i-eeM-eel-i-Yale, 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. 
 
198 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 As Sophomores we have our task; 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 'Tis best performed with torch and mask, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. Chorus. 
 
 In Junior year we take our ease, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 We smoke our pipes and sing our glees, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. Chorus. 
 
 In Senior year we act our parts, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 In making love, and winning hearts, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. Chorus. 
 
 And then into the world we come; 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 We've made good friends and studied some, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. Chorus. 
 
 Adagio The saddest tale we have to tell, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 Is when we bid our friends farewell, 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. Chorus. 
 
 A tempo And till the sun and moon shall pale, 
 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol, 
 We'll love and reverence Mother Yale, 
 Fol de rol de rol rol rol. Chorus. 
 
 Chorus repeated, accelerando and fortissimo. 
 
 *EEL-i-Yale: in honor of Elihu, or "Eli" Yale, the patron 
 of Yale College. 
 
 The effect produced on the listener by this 
 "glee" is more easily felt than described; and 
 on John's tender, lonely heart its cadences fell 
 like a balm, filling it to overflowing with soar 
 ing hope and ambition and hearty camaraderie. 
 
 At the time John entered the university life 
 of Yale there were far fewer dormitories, living 
 halls and apartments provided for the accommo 
 dation of her students than at present, and 
 

ABSENCE 199 
 
 most of the freshmen were compelled to rustle 
 around for individual rooms and eating places 
 among the close-by boarding houses and the 
 many old dwellings of moderate pretensions in 
 which more or less senile landladies and finan 
 cially embarrassed local families furnished un 
 sophisticated college youths with some of the 
 comforts, but none of the luxuries, of a home. 
 
 Some practical joker in a group of sopho 
 mores to whom John innocently applied for in 
 formation on the subject the following morning, 
 maliciously directed him to one of the worst- 
 conducted and most dilapidated of New Haven's 
 notoriously rotten students ' boarding houses. 
 
 The same deplorable condition of affairs in 
 this respect confronts the Yale freshmen to-day, 
 there being scarcely a decent, modern rooming- 
 house or apartment building, aside from those 
 attached to the university itself, for blocks 
 around the Campus and main buildings of the 
 school. The old worm-eaten shacks that look 
 as if they were erected when the first elms were 
 planted about the Campus, have proved too 
 profitable to their get-rich-quick owners and 
 tenants to be removed or improved; and New 
 Haven being peculiarly a city content to live 
 upon the necessities of the "stoodints," as it 
 has done for some hundreds of years, with all 
 the crustiness and cupidity of age, its only 
 
200 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 prey the fresh young ' ' outlanders " who fall 
 temporarily within its clutches, it has become 
 chronically case-hardened, and, like the fly that 
 lit on the grocery-man's ham, "it doesn't give 
 a damn. " 
 
 John interviewed the unkempt Goddess of 
 Plenty who presided over the corporeal well- 
 being of the embryonic statesmen and chrysalis 
 captains of industry at the address on Church 
 street given him by the smug wag; and, though 
 the outside appearance of the place was unin 
 viting enough and its presiding genius still less 
 so, he "fell for" her assertion that all the stu 
 dents just doted on getting into as old and his 
 toric quarters as they could, even paying a pre 
 mium for extra barrenness; and agreed with 
 her on a weekly tariff. 
 
 That night he moved in his belongings and 
 ate his first meal there. The meal was simply 
 atrocious, the dining-room and kitchen an im 
 provised shambles and his bedroom Demosthe 
 nes, with all his eloquence, could not have done 
 it descriptive justice ! Nor could he have found 
 words to portray the luridity of the impression 
 it made upon the sensitive boy, fresh from home 
 and mother's cleanly ways. 
 
 A pewter bowl and ewer, gracing jauntily a 
 rickety washstand with two lean arms that 
 seemed perpetually raised in self-defence 
 
ABSENCE 201 
 
 against expected blows; a cracked but highly 
 decorated slop-jar with a hand-worked, striped 
 worsted "tidy" sporting a tassel in the centre, 
 drawn carefully over its cover; a Boston rocker 
 with both heels broken off at the front legs and 
 streaked with ink and half bare of paint; a bed 
 stead like a horse-stall, filled with a husk mat 
 tress well lumped to fit the shape of the room's 
 last incumbent; torn linen the color of a gray 
 cloud; one pillow redolent of the hen-yard; a 
 three-legged table (by grace of the imagination 
 a tripod) ; a German-plate mirror (called a look 
 ing glass) with more angles of refraction than 
 one dim gas jet could handle at one time; a 
 bureau sans mirror, sans nobs, sans varnish, 
 sans cleanliness, sans everything: and, to sur 
 mount all, a floor ' i covering ' ' of faded oil-cloth, 
 devoid of its original design except under the 
 bureau. This latter " objet de virtu" was itself 
 covered in turn, in ostensible carelessly-artistic 
 arrangements, by narrow strips of threadbare, 
 borderless carpet of various vintages. On cu 
 rious after-investigation, he found these unge- 
 ometrieally-distributed "rugs" to have been 
 placed over an equal number of holes in the un 
 derlying oil-cloth, to add to the tout ensemble of 
 this egregious hole-in-the-wall which the affable 
 landlady designated as "his little boudoir." 
 The walls had been possible masterpieces of 
 
202 ERIC MAROTTB 
 
 rural mural magnificence in their time, but the 
 " flight of the ages" had sobered them into one 
 prevalent hue of dismalness. The ceiling gaped 
 in irregular cracks from which the boarding- 
 house " menagerie" made occasional sortees and 
 reconnaissances to view the new tenant and al 
 low their pampered proboscises to " water" over 
 their approaching feast; for in this "home" the 
 bugs, at least, fared well. One could almost 
 imagine that, with the aid of one of the power 
 ful sound-multipliers of the college's physical 
 laboratory, he could hear them declaiming that 
 ferocious quatrain: 
 
 "Pee, fie, fo, fum! 
 
 I smell the blood of an Englishmun; 
 Dead or alive, I will have some! 
 Fee, fie, fo, fum!" 
 
 Afraid to trust to either the purity or the 
 stability of his ' ' royal couch, ' ' John dallied long 
 and gingerly over his disrobing, taking a towel, 
 wet on one end (fortunately there were two of 
 them in sight, as the season was yet young) to 
 the bedside with him, with which to cleanse 
 the "souls" of his feet after crossing the room. 
 Then he held his breath and took the dreadful 
 plunge into that "Rocky Eoad to Dublin. ' ' With 
 the light out and the late moon peering in trans- 
 lucently through the single dirty, sinall-paned, 
 diminutive window of the room, the aspect of 
 his surroundings lost a part of its horrors for 
 
ABSENCE 203 
 
 him, and throwing off by a mighty mental effort 
 the fit of "the blues " it gave him, he com 
 mended his soul to God and his landlady-witch 
 to the devil and slept, "though angels wept." 
 (0 youth and hope! from what despond doth 
 Morpheus preserve you!) 
 
 Morning dawned on all the hideousness of 
 John's curiosity-shop of a bedroom; and getting 
 up stiffly, rubbing the sore spots on his anatomy 
 where he had "bumped the bumps " on his " im 
 pressing " mattress, he dressed and descended 
 to the regular New Haven "stoodints" board 
 ing-house breakfast. 
 
 Here he met with another jolting surprise 
 Eggs a la Home for the Aged Poor ; Coffee a la 
 Big Muddy River; Butter en Greece; two one- 
 by-three-by-a-half-inch strips of Beefsteak de 
 Horse; Potatoes, Naturally-Bad; Syrup alias 
 Molasses; Oatmeal a la Oliver Twist; Milk a 
 la Town Pump; Corn-bread au Pellegra 
 Shades of Epicurus ! on what luxurious pabulum 
 doth the " business-woman " feed other women's 
 sons! 
 
 John shut his eyes and bolted his portion 
 of the matutinal banquet; and, having foolishly 
 paid his board for a week in advance, felt con 
 strained to put up with all this bodily insult 
 till the expiration of that period. 
 
 But that night he walked the silent streets 
 
ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 envying the dwellers in each house he passed 
 in whose windows a cheerful, home-like light 
 was burning, and felt that every one had a 
 home and love and decency, except himself. 
 Over him came the terror-inspiring conscious 
 ness that he was now an Ishmael a pariah, 
 that he was not as other men. 
 
 He walked for hours, but could not shake 
 off the overpowering melancholy of his thoughts 
 and feelings; then sought again his nightmare 
 of a room, and falling on his knees by the bed, 
 gave himself up to all the agony and longing 
 and silent supplications of violent nostalgia, that 
 affection of the mind and heart which, like love, 
 seems so humorously imaginary in others and 
 so excruciatingly real in ourselves. 
 
 In the language of Henryk Sienkiewicz, "In 
 moments like these the soul gets wings ; what it 
 has to remember it remembers; what it loves 
 it loves still more warmly; what it longs for, 
 there it flies. ' ' 
 
 Sick at heart, he haunted for days the uni 
 versity 's reading rooms, devouring every line of 
 the current Chicago papers in his desperate 
 clinging to their home ties. 
 
 One day before his week was up at that 
 "Hotel Horrific/' he moved to better quarters 
 further out, on York street; and in time his 
 home-sickness disappeared and was lost in the 
 
ABSENCE 205 
 
 multiplicity of his new university and class in 
 terests. He joined the " Alpha Chi" society, 
 participated in the "cane-rush" and other boist 
 erous exuberances of collegiate life, including 
 getting properly hazed and stealing a good- 
 sized sign-board with which to decorate his 
 "den," and gradually became part and parcel of 
 the college spirit, with its athletic, scholastic, so 
 cial and political evolutions and emulations, its 
 joys and sorrows, its triumphs and disappoint 
 ments. He was a full-fledged collegian at last. 
 
 Four years he laboriously climbed the tree 
 of universal learning, high and wide as the im 
 memorial elms upon the Campus, that trace the 
 long generations of that ancient seat of erudi 
 tion in the rings of their mighty trunks; till 
 eventually came that great day and week, the 
 Last Commencement for him the end of the 
 school, but the beginning of the life of the 
 world ; the great transition from theory to prac 
 tice, when the much-lauded graduate with his 
 talismanic sheep-skin hugged fondly and proud 
 ly to his manly bosom, goeth forth, a tiny, tink 
 ling deity astride a hobby on rollers ; one hand 
 raised loftily before him and stabbing the em 
 pyrean with the sword of progress, insurgency, 
 enlightenment and glory; the other hand drag 
 ging behind him by the tail the poor, old, be 
 nighted world, all upside down and kicking. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ENTRE NOUS 
 
 was six o 'clock, P. M., on the four 
 teenth day of June, 189 . The man 
 ager of the Windsor Hotel in Mon 
 treal, Canada, had just descended 
 in the "lift" from his luxurious private apart 
 ments, and was strutting across the hotel lobby 
 in his full-dress suit, his expansive shirt front 
 emblazoned with three very large solitaire dia 
 mond studs watching out of the corners of his 
 eyes for those who might be duly impressed by 
 his grandiose appearance. 
 
 As he paraded along he sized up in his 
 mind's eye, the women among his guests who 
 might prove susceptible to his charms and the 
 men whom he could likely flatter into a profit 
 able (to the house) vanity of expenditure. He 
 was the head peacock of this " Peacock 's Alley" 
 of Canada, catering to and pampering the Can 
 adian and American bon ton. 
 
 The spacious rotunda was filled with resi 
 dent guests in semi-full dress, interspersed with 
 new arrivals and late departures. 
 
 Over in one corner, partly concealed behind 
 a real palm shrub of generous height, sat a 
 
 206 
 
ENTRE NOUS 207 
 
 lady and gentleman of quiet mien and appareled 
 in good taste. The man was of medium stature 
 but rugged and wiry-looking, with the tan of 
 the wild on face and hands. The woman was 
 taller and a pronounced blonde, with clear skin 
 and a Scandinavian cast of features. She was 
 exceedingly attractive and intelligent in appear 
 ance. Evidently husband and wife, they were 
 conversing together in low tones, oblivious of 
 the passing sensation caused by the theatrical, 
 pouter-pigeon entree of the self -centered hotel 
 manager. The man spoke with a decided 
 French-Canadian accent, but the woman's Eng 
 lish was beyond criticism. A rather oddly as 
 sorted pair, to look at them casually, they yet 
 seemed perfectly congenial in their relations to 
 each other, as though time and long endurance 
 together had wrought between them a loving 
 understanding. 
 
 "Well, then, it is settled, " spoke the man; 
 ' ' and now let us go in to dinner. ' ' 
 
 "But, remember afterwards"; and the 
 woman rose from her seat in reply. 
 
 They passed on into the " Salle a Manger," 
 as it was ground in great letters in the glass 
 fan-light over the dining-room 's double door. 
 The mditre d' hotel conducted them, with many 
 flourishes of his hands and obsequious salaams, 
 to the special two-chair table always reserved 
 
208 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 for them, and left them to the tender mercies 
 of the liveried side-waiter, whose solicitous def 
 erence proclaimed his respect for them as good 
 < 'tippers." 
 
 The great room rapidly filled as they ate 
 leisurely from course to course, languidly ob 
 serving each new-comer; while the band played 
 on and the cut flowers in the tall vases on the 
 dining tables lent their fragrance to the bril 
 liant scene. 
 
 Suddenly the woman motioned slightly and 
 to the right, calling her companion's attention 
 to a party of two, probably mother and daugh 
 ter, who had just been seated across the floor 
 from them. The man turned slowly, and in 
 offensively took them in. 
 
 "What hair! What a face!" he exclaimed 
 softly; "Americans, I fancy." 
 
 "We must know them!" replied the wom 
 an. ' t They seem to be unattended and unknown 
 here. There is something about that young 
 girl that affects me clairvoyantly as though 
 the lines of our lives have crossed before and 
 will cross again with some tremendous conse 
 quence to us both. My heart beats so at sight 
 of her, it frightens me! It's not alone her beauty 
 that fascinates me it's something else that I 
 do not understand." 
 
 "I too am unaccountably impressed. Let's 
 
ENTRE NOUS 209 
 
 leave the dining room before them and ask at 
 the office who they are." 
 
 Fifteen minutes later they were in posses 
 sion of all the information at the clerk's dis 
 posal, viz: Mrs. and Miss Gretchen Hummel- 
 mueller, registered from Chicago, Illinois; 
 rooms engaged ahead by wire for a two-day s' 
 stop over on their way to Quebec. 
 
 Seating themselves where they commanded 
 an unobstructed view of the entire rotunda, the 
 couple watched and waited for the reappear 
 ance of the two Americans when they should 
 have finished dinner. 
 
 Presently the latter came out, and after visit 
 ing the various curio stands and little shops 
 of the hotel adjoining the lobby and taking sev 
 eral turns about the spacious place, settled 
 down on a settee not far from the Canadians, 
 to enjoy the life and novelty of the situation 
 at their ease. They were shortly espied by the 
 grandiloquent manager, who approached and 
 asked after their convenience and comfort. He 
 gradually engaged them in the recounting of 
 their experiences on their trip there from Chi 
 cago, via the Great Lakes and the St. Law 
 rence River, with its Thousand Islands, and the 
 " shooting" of the Lachine Eapids by their 
 steamer; expatiating in his turn upon the fur 
 ther beauties of that majestic river as it flowed 
 
210 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 northward, past quaint old Quebec, with its 
 upper and lower towns and ancient fortress, 
 to its broad, ice-bound mouth. He begged them 
 particularly not to omit the wonderful side-trip 
 up the Saguenay Eiver, that tributary whose 
 sublime and awe-inspiring cliffs rival in magni 
 ficence, solemnity and wild grandeur the Falls 
 of Niagara. 
 
 Then speaking of the Canadian Northwest, 
 with its boundless forests and fertile rolling 
 plains, its picturesque mountain scenery and 
 undeveloped riches, his wandering eye fell upon 
 the French-Canadian and his wife, and he said: 
 
 "Ladies, let me introduce to you one of our 
 most successful frontiers-lumber-men, who has 
 just retired to Montreal with a large fortune 
 honestly won from that erstwhile inhospitable 
 wilderness. I assure you, you will enjoy his 
 graphic account of the trials, hardships and 
 adventures he and his noble wife went through 
 there. And his descriptions, at first hand, of 
 these then almost unknown regions will please 
 you more than those in any book you ever 
 read. They are now the social " lions " of Mon 
 treal and you should meet them, by all means- 
 Permit me." 
 
 And on their acquiescence, he called a ' i bell 
 hop" and ordered him to fetch two chairs. Go 
 ing up to the other couple, he invited them to 
 
ENTRE NOUS 211 
 
 meet the Chicago ladies, "in whom he felt 
 sure/' he said, "they would become highly in 
 terested. ' ' 
 
 The Canadians had been furtively observing 
 the little group all this time, and arose with 
 alacrity to accompany him to them. 
 
 "Mrs. and Miss Hummelmueller, this is Mr. 
 and Mrs. Marotte. I have explained to them 
 that you are traveling alone and are strangers 
 here; and they, I am persuaded, will have great 
 pleasure in telling you everything of real inter 
 est about our city and province and of their 
 long sojourn in Middle and Western Canada. 
 If you will excuse me now, I have not yet 
 dined." And with his most imposing bow he 
 left them to improve their mutual acquaintance. 
 
 "Mrs. Hummelmueller," began Mrs. Ma 
 rotte, "I am glad indeed to know you, and I 
 will do my best to make your stay with us an 
 interesting and enjoyable one. To tell you the 
 truth, both my husband and myself have al 
 ready been greatly attracted by your beautiful 
 daughter, and had hoped for an introduction 
 to you before you left Montreal." 
 
 Mrs. Hummelmueller 's face beamed, while 
 Gretchen blushed a little consciously at the 
 broad personal compliment to herself. 
 
 But she managed to say, politely: 
 
 "You are very kind, madam; and you may 
 
212 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 be sure we shall appreciate your courtesies, and 
 perhaps we may some time be permitted to 
 return them. Mamma and I were just wonder 
 ing how to get about in the morning and what 
 to do first; but now with you and Mr. Marotte 
 for "friends, philosophers and guides, " we shall 
 fare far better than we could have expected. 
 If you will direct us how to go about our sight 
 seeing, we will try not to impose upon your 
 time and good-nature too much." 
 
 "The pleasure will be ours," returned Mrs. 
 Marotte. "You see, you two are persona grata 
 with us." 
 
 Mr. Marotte and Gretchen's mother now 
 joining in the general conversation, an hour 
 sped by unheeded ; till Mrs. Marotte, happening 
 to glance at the big office-clock, gave a quick 
 exclamation of surprise. Addressing her hus 
 band, she cried out half -anxiously: 
 
 "Good gracious! I have been so wrapped 
 up in our talk that I entirely forgot the day! 
 Francois, what shall we do? I don't like to 
 leave the ladies so abruptly, but you know how 
 much this night means to us both." 
 
 Her husband started to reply. She held up 
 her hand with a quick, deterring gesture. 
 
 "Wait a minute! I have an inspiration! Why 
 not invite the ladies to join us in our private 
 parlor? I know we have always before held 
 
ENTRB NOUS 213 
 
 this occasion sacred to ourselves, and that no 
 other soul has ever witnessed our vigils; but I 
 feel I know that Fate has brought Miss 
 Gretchen here to-night for some sure purpose 
 of its own, and I am sorely tempted to break 
 our old rule, if she and her mother will grant 
 us their presence and sympathies for the 
 nonce. " Mr. Marotte nodded quietly. 
 
 Turning to the others, she explained that 
 she and her husband had planned to hold an 
 " anniversary " in their rooms that evening, and 
 added that, "if not too fatigued with their long 
 journey, she begged them to accompany them 
 there now." "She would not detain them 
 long, ' ' she said, ' ' and would acquaint them with 
 one of the strangest tales of real life they had 
 ever heard. " 
 
 Curious and sympathetic, they responded 
 willingly to her urgent entreaties, and the whole 
 party walked at once to the "lift." 
 
 Entering their own parlor, Mrs. Marotte 
 turned on the lights, and disclosed a table set 
 in the centre of the room and laid with a white 
 cloth, upon which rested a round " birth-day- 
 cake, " surmounted all around its outside edge 
 by twenty inserted, tiny, pure-white wax can 
 dles. 
 
 Drawing up four chairs to the four sides of 
 the small table and requesting their visitors to 
 
214 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 be seated on either side of herself, she and her 
 husband sat down facing each other; and a short 
 silence ensued. 
 
 The suspense was ended, after a little, by 
 Mr. Marotte, who lowered his eyes, and in a 
 subdued voice asked a benediction in these 
 strange words: 
 
 1 ' Father of the fatherless, whose all-seeing 
 eyes can scan this earth from pole to pole, 
 whose wide omniscient ear can hear the cries 
 and prayers of each dumb brute and every mor 
 tal in distress, whose mercy mild encompasses 
 e'en when we go astray; we thank Thee fer 
 vently for all the blessings with which it long 
 hath pleased Thy overheart to so endow us. 
 We do adore Thee, and do not now complain, 
 but if thou wilt but hear our humble supplica 
 tions, watch Thou o'er our little son where'er 
 he wanders, and let us see him once again be 
 fore we die. Or, if Thou hast already called 
 him to Thy side, so guide our footsteps that 
 in death they lead to him. Amen." 
 
 He raised his bowed head, and his wife, with 
 strained lips and suffering eyes, arose and 
 lighted all the little candles one by one. 
 
 Mrs. Hummelmueller and Gretchen were so 
 overcome by surprise at the unusual proceed 
 ings that they could only sit silent, staring 
 
ENTBE NOUS 215 
 
 first at Mr. Marotte and then at his wife, in pity 
 ing wonder. 
 
 The latter sat musing and speechless before 
 them, forgetful of their presence, gazing with 
 far-away looks into some hidden past whose 
 memories obsessed them. 
 
 Mrs. Marotte was the first to recover from 
 their abstraction, and with a wan, apologetic 
 smile recalled herself to the amenities as 
 hostess. 
 
 "You must bear with us a moment, my dears, 
 and I will elucidate to you the seeming strange 
 ness of this orison this i breaking of bread 7 
 with the unseen. There is nothing fanatical or 
 mystical about it when you come to understand 
 its meaning and the circumstances which orig 
 inated it." 
 
 Taking up a silver knife which lay beside a 
 pile of three decorated plates and securing two 
 more plates from a miniature sideboard, she 
 cut a slice from the cake for each of those pres 
 ent and another one for the spirit of their ab 
 sent son. 
 
 She moved a fifth chair to the table beside 
 her, and set this plate with its portion on the 
 table in front of it. In cutting the cake she 
 extinguished five of the little candles, but left- 
 all of the rest burning. Before she sat down 
 again in her own place at the table she turned 
 
216 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 out all the electric lamps in the parlor, throw 
 ing open the connecting door to their bedroom, 
 from whence a subdued glow bathed in an eerie 
 semi-gloom the room in which they sat. The 
 light from the candles on the table threw the 
 faces of those seated around it into a weird, 
 Eembrandt-like relief in chiaroscuro, like the 
 flames of a camp-fire in the woods on a dark 
 night. The visitors shivered and glanced fear 
 fully about the room. 
 
 Mrs. Marotte began again, without preamble : 
 
 " Twenty years ago to-night a son was born 
 to us near one of the then far outposts of the 
 Canadian frontier, in a log cabin of two rooms, 
 flanked by the shacks and bunk houses of a 
 wilderness logging camp in Northeastern Mani 
 toba. 
 
 "We were comparatively poor then, but 
 Francois, my husband, owned a half interest in 
 the timber we were . cutting and personally 
 4 bossed' the logging crew. 
 
 "I had refused to be separated from him 
 during the logging season; and as we could in 
 duce no woman servant to follow us to so wild 
 and lonely a spot, I had decided to do most of 
 the primitive cooking and house-work for us 
 two myself, with an occasion lift from the man 
 who acted as our camp cook. 
 
 "The winter following the birth of our son 
 
ENTRE NOUS 217 
 
 was a severe one, even for that part of Canada, 
 with a continuous, heavy snow-fall which made 
 all our men anxious to get out as many logs as 
 possible and establish a new logging record. 
 
 "It was now early spring, and preparations 
 for the log-drive down the river and lakes were 
 nearly completed. . 
 
 "Our child was at this time nearly nine 
 months old and seemed none the worse for lack 
 ing the conveniences and advantages of civil 
 ized communities; for he was as sturdy and 
 happy as a baby can be and the delight of the 
 whole camp, to most of whose members he was 
 a never-ending source of surprise and curiosity 
 and an object of rough adoration. 
 
 "He slept in a crude cradle the camp car 
 penter had made and presented to him with 
 bursting pride, and was allowed to crawl about 
 the floor of the combined kitchen and living 
 room of the cabin during his waking hours, 
 when I was busy. The big, open fireplace had 
 been fenced off with sapling branches to pre 
 vent his approaching it too closely. There was 
 no door between the two rooms, but a portier 
 improvised out of a large blanket and rigged 
 on a round tree-limb, answered its purpose. I 
 always fastened this back against the door- 
 jamb in the day time, so that the child was never 
 out of my sight. This precaution was taken 
 
218 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 partly on account of the wild animals which 
 occasionally visited the camp when hungry 
 even in daylight, when the men were away in 
 the timber. 
 
 "Late one afternoon, on a day so unusually 
 mild that the snow began to thaw, I left the 
 front door of the cabin open to let in the bright 
 rays of the declining sun. About five o'clock 
 I found I was out of water, and seeing nothing 
 around to disturb the child, I took the two 
 empty buckets and started for the river, which 
 was only a few rods away but on the opposite 
 side of the cabin from its one outer doorway. 
 I was interested in following the first signs of 
 the coming spring and speculating on the ap 
 proaching log-drive, and did not hurry; but I 
 could not have been outside the cabin over ten 
 minutes when I thought I heard the baby's 
 frightened cry. 
 
 " Dropping the buckets, I ran back quickly. 
 Just as I rounded the corner of the cabin, I 
 saw a great she-bear half running, half walking, 
 towards the edge of the clearing, about five 
 hundred feet to the west; and I nearly swooned 
 with fright and horror when I saw our baby 
 clutched between one fore paw of the bear and 
 its muzzle. 
 
 "That sight was indelibly burnt upon the 
 retinas of my eyes. It still haunts my dreams 
 
ENTRE NOUS 219 
 
 of nights, so that I often wake up in terror, 
 shivering in a cold perspiration like a murderer 
 confronted by the ghost of his victim. 
 
 "The bear espied me at the same instant I 
 did her, and dropping to all fours with the 
 babe's clothing held between her teeth, dashed 
 off at top speed. 
 
 "I stumbled into the cabin half dazed, and 
 seizing the extra rifle which always hung on 
 the pegs over the low door, ran screaming 
 after it. 
 
 "I did not dare to fire at the bear, however, 
 lest I might kill the child or only wound the 
 bear, which would then likely destroy the child 
 in her rage. But I fired two shots into the air, 
 and their reports and my screams must have 
 reached the "lumber jacks" working nearest 
 by in the woods; for I found several of them 
 standing over me, and trying to resuscitate me, 
 and all imploring me to tell them what had 
 happened, when I recovered from my fit of 
 fainting on the spot, a quarter of a mile from 
 the cabin, where I had fallen over a hidden log. 
 
 "Just as I opened my lips to give them the 
 awful tidings, my husband came running up. 
 He had gone first to the cabin, and finding our 
 baby gone and the big bear's tracks leading to 
 and away from it, had at once surmised the 
 terrible misfortune that had befallen us. 
 
220 ERIC MAEOTTE 
 
 "He lifted me up and set me against the 
 trunk of a tree and with quick words and ges 
 tures told the men the horrible truth. Then he 
 and two others who were armed broke through 
 the tangled underbrush, following the bear's 
 trail, while the rest of the men present rushed 
 back to the forest to spread the alarm and to the 
 camp to gather arms for the rest of the crew. 
 
 "I had badly sprained an ankle in my fall 
 over the log, but got unsteadily to my feet and 
 attempted to limp after my husband's small 
 party, in spite of the excruciating pains that 
 shot through my injured limb at every step; 
 until a couple of our men overtook me and in 
 sisted on carrying me home to the cabin, where 
 they left the camp cook to care for and reassure 
 me, and to guard me by force from crawling 
 after the bear hunters on my hands and knees, 
 which he afterwards declared I repeatedly tried 
 to do. 
 
 "This man, who was one of our oldest and 
 most trusted hands, finally persuaded me that 
 I could do nothing to help find and recover 
 our lost child, and set to work bathing my 
 swollen ankle in hot water and then wrapping 
 it in a hot, wet sheet with a blanket over that. 
 
 "Hours went by filled with such mental and 
 physical agony together as I hope you may 
 never have to endure. I could only rage and 
 
ENTRB NOUS 221 
 
 moan and weep by turns. Midnight came, and 
 still the men had not returned. 
 
 "At dawn they began to straggle in from 
 various directions. It was unnecessary to ask 
 them any questions their sombre faces told 
 the story of their failure to find any traces of 
 either the baby or the bear. At three o'clock 
 in the morning the last of the men got in, ex 
 cepting my husband (Francois here), and the 
 two men who had started out with him at the 
 first. These had stayed in the timber to con 
 tinue the desperate search. 
 
 "In the meantime the cook had turned me 
 over to another ' nurse ' and prepared an early 
 breakfast for the crew. After eating it and 
 taking two hours ' sleep, they let the logging go 
 for the day and went out again, carrying along 
 with them food for the three men who still 
 kept up the hunt. 
 
 "Francois did not come back to the cabin 
 at all until they all arrived together the follow 
 ing night. Neither the bear or the baby had 
 been discovered, nor had any shred of the 
 baby's clothing been found. It seemed unac 
 countable, but the bear's tracks had mysterious 
 ly stopped at the edge of a deep ravine, and 
 although the men beat over every foot of the 
 natural depression and followed its course to 
 both its outlets, and searched the banks all 
 
222 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 around it a hundred times, they could pick up 
 no trail of the bear's paws indicating that it 
 had either entered or left that ravine. 
 
 "That night was a more terrible one to me 
 than the preceding night; for now I had partly 
 lost the agonizing sense of suspense, but gained 
 a more horrible fear of certainty. I pictured 
 to myself the horrible, revolting spectacle of my 
 child being leisurely devoured by the bear. I 
 saw the brute tear it part from part. I heard 
 her crunch its little bones. I heard its dying 
 cries I raved! I thought I should go insane, 
 and it was imperative to watch and restrain 
 and soothe me during every hour. 
 
 "By the second morning it was snowing 
 heavily, in spite of the lateness of the season; 
 and the bear's tracks, and even those made by 
 our men the day before, had become entirely 
 obliterated. Nevertheless my husband again 
 headed a searching-party, which spent another 
 whole day in fruitless attempts to locate the 
 bear's lair. And if the bear had been in hiding 
 anywhere near, she had evidently had the nat 
 ural instinct to make her escape during the first 
 fall of the heavy snow in the middle of the night, 
 so as to leave no trail behind her. 
 
 "The apparently miraculous disappearance 
 into nothingness, or thin air, of the bear and 
 our child, has never been explained to this day, 
 
ENTRE NOUS 223 
 
 and, though the alarm was spread for miles 
 around the camp, no one ever reported their 
 reappearance in any direction. 
 
 "We held back the t drive' to the last pos 
 sible minute, but at last packed our household 
 goods and camp equipments and poled the logs 
 down the river, in a blank and superstitious de 
 spair. 
 
 "Our reason tells us that our boy is dead; 
 yet, even in this hour, I cannot disabuse my 
 mind of the prescient faith that he still lives, 
 and that in God's own good time we shall find 
 him again. My heart, like a sixth sense, is ever 
 alert for some message from the visible or the 
 invisible world which shall disclose to us the 
 hidden clew we still seek. 
 
 "It was this ' sixth sense' that so suddenly 
 drew my attention and so strongly attracted 
 me to Miss Gretchen, and led me to invite you 
 ladies to participate in this anniversary of ours, 
 which is both commemoration of our dead and 
 a spiritual reunion with our living. I am 
 positive in my heart, that Gretchen is in some 
 way connected with that elusive clew for which 
 we have never given up our search, and I beg, 
 here on my knees, that she help us if she can!" 
 
 Mrs. Marotte ceased speaking, her voice 
 hoarse from emotion, and her breast heaving 
 with an agitation that was reflected in her hus- 
 
224 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 band's pleading face. They both gazed expect 
 antly at Mrs. Hummelmueller and Gretchen. 
 The latter had listened, as had her mother, in 
 breathless silence and awe to the astonishing 
 story and its weird mental association with her 
 self by their hosts; and for the space of several 
 minutes neither spoke. 
 
 Comment semed cruel and superfluous the 
 mystery and the wound were too deep for tact 
 less probing; and they were too deeply and sin 
 cerely affected by the story to offer their hosts 
 either unsought advice or compassionate plati 
 tudes and banalities. 
 
 A spell seemed to have been cast over the 
 young girl that she could not break. Turning 
 her eyes slowly upon Mrs. Marotte with a half- 
 hypnotized expression on her face, she said: 
 
 "You have almost convinced me that there 
 is such a thing as the sixth sense and that it 
 is now coming to me and will eventually lead 
 me to the same goal your own heart sees ahead. 
 I shall never cease now to watch for the signs, 
 however slight, of the spiritual, guiding hand 
 which men call woman 's intuition, in eager hope 
 that it will, soon or late, point out to me the way 
 to help you. And, too, I feel subconsciously 
 that my own future is inextricably and pecul 
 iarly involved in yours. " 
 
 Mrs. Marotte arose with, a relieved sigh and 
 
ENTRE NOUS 225 
 
 kissed Gretchen's forehead with, the holy, con 
 secrating kiss of perfect trust and a mother's 
 blessing, then moved her chair close and sat 
 down with one arm around her. 
 
 Their talk drifted into ordinary channels 
 again, until the party separated for the evening. 
 That night and many a night thereafter 
 Gretchen dreamed strange dreams, creations of 
 subconsciousness and spirituality, broken and 
 intermittent and obscure, yet ever returning to 
 the same one kaleidoscopic scene breaking 
 again into a thousand new ones before the 
 sleeping brain-cells could fix or record its mean 
 ing. In the morning she could never recall 
 clearly and coherently any part of these visions, 
 but she considered it a good omen that she al 
 ways awoke from them happy and hopeful. 
 
 After two days of sight-seeing and shopping 
 under the chaperonage of their new-found 
 friends, she and her mother bid them "Auf 
 wiedersehen," and proceeded on their way 
 towards Quebec. Before they left, however, Mr. 
 and Mrs. Marotte promised to look them up in 
 Chicago the next time they visited "The 
 States," where business matters frequently 
 called them, and to correspond with them in 
 the meantime. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HOME AGAIN-ALSO A COLLOQUIAL DISSERTATION 
 ON THE RACE PROBLEM 
 
 HEN John, after his last university 
 semester, returned to Chicago 
 with his baccalaureate degree, 
 Mrs. Hummelmueller and Gretchen 
 were still absent on their travels, and for a week 
 or so Young-Love could not go a-wooing. His 
 reception by his many old friends and admir 
 ers was cordial if not hilarious; and his foster- 
 parents were, of course, openly proud of him, 
 and secretly adored him as a coming genius 
 marked by both Fame and Fortune for their 
 own as the fond parents of even the most me 
 diocre college graduates are generously apt to 
 be and do, God bless 'em! There was nothing 
 too good for him at home, and they listened to 
 his youthfully ambitious plans and ideas and 
 his dissertations on college life and studies with 
 that respectful, self-gratulatory awe which the 
 uneducated invariably feel in the presence of 
 those for whom they have been enabled, by 
 either good fortune or personal sacrifice, to pro 
 vide the opportunities for higher education that 
 they themselves have been denied, and the lack 
 
 226 
 
HOME AGAIN EACE PROBLEM 227 
 
 of which in their own cases they have long se 
 cretly regretted with that over-estimation of 
 the power of mere learning common to those 
 who have succeeded in life without it, and who, 
 with the coming of financial and social eleva 
 tion, begin to feel the need of its polish and 
 convenience the more keenly. Higher educa 
 tion may be a failure sometimes (as the late 
 educationally iconoclastic iron-master, Mr. 
 Crane, so strenuously maintained), but there is 
 a wondrous lot of satisfaction in its possession, 
 even vicariously. 
 
 It was decided by John's family that noth 
 ing should be done about choosing a " career " 
 for their budding genius until the return home 
 of the Hummelmuellers mere and fille. The 
 principal of the ten thousand dollars reward 
 that Mr. Hummelmueller had insisted upon set 
 tling upon John for his wonderful, heroic rescue 
 of Gretchen from the lumber yard fire, had not 
 been touched, as the income from its profitable 
 investment had been sufficient, with what his 
 foster-father could spare him, to carry him 
 through his four years at the university, and 
 was still intact, and immediately available. 
 When all the members of both families were 
 finally assembled together in solemn confabu 
 lation over the important question of John's 
 proper vocational choice, they took up the mat- 
 
228 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 ter in all its phases and threshed out the pros 
 and cons of whether it would be better to use 
 it in purchasing for John an interest in some 
 congenial business at once or to leave it where 
 it was for the present and find him a position 
 with a large concern where he could rise by 
 his own merits. John's own inclination was to 
 combine the two ideas by entering some good 
 line of business as an employee, with the privi 
 lege of acquiring a partnership, or stock, in the 
 concern later on if mutually agreeable to him 
 self and his employers. This plan appealed 
 to them all as a sound one, especially consider 
 ing his youth and inexperience, and it was 
 agreed that they (the men-folks) should look 
 around for a suitable opening for him. 
 
 This required several months of careful in 
 quiries and lengthy conferences, and it was late 
 fall before just the right combination was found 
 and John started to work. (Mr. Hummelmuel- 
 ler would gladly have made a place for him 
 in his breweiy, but John, who did not drink 
 himself, had youthful scruples against selling 
 drink to others and felt, that even if he ac 
 cepted the chance, his heart would not be in 
 his work and, moreover, he was not adapted, 
 either by birth or bringing up, to the business.) 
 The firm finally chosen was a comparatively new 
 one engaged in the manufacturing of machinery 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 229 
 
 of a special kind, and which needed additional 
 capital to develop several promising side lines 
 in contemplation. John had a natural bent in 
 that direction and felt that he could bring to 
 his labors here that greater likelihood of suc 
 cess which accrues from a genuine liking for 
 both the theory and practice of the thing one 
 daily strives to master. An absorbing interest 
 in any certain business or profession is not 
 only the "hall mark" of success in all its prob 
 abilities, but the key to contentment; and he 
 was fortunate in not only being able to choose 
 from the beginning a permanent and agreeable 
 line of work, but in discovering that he had not 
 unduly overestimated his own adaptability to 
 that line. For, while it is a wise axiom for a 
 youth starting out in the world to "go where 
 the door is open" to him, it is better, wher 
 ever possible, to fit the job to the man rather 
 than the man to the job. 
 
 John went into harness with that eager-eyed, 
 curious, intelligent freshness so fascinating to 
 observe in the ambitious young upon their first, 
 enthusiastic engagement in the practical, sys 
 tematized work of the real world of business 
 before they "become too wise for happiness" in 
 routine endeavor. He was started in overalls 
 at the bottom of the ladder, but, of course, re 
 mained on each successive rundle in each sue- 
 
280 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 cessive position only long enough to learn 
 practically and personally how to perform its 
 respective labors, and to grasp intelligently the 
 relation of the thread of its duties to the whole 
 fabric of the business. Within two years, he 
 had mastered the entire details and system of 
 the machine shop, and of its sales department 
 as well, and was made secretary and treasurer 
 of the stock company into which the firm was 
 merged and organized upon the investment with 
 it of John's ten thousand dollar " nest-egg' '; 
 and the new concern branched out at once in 
 several new special lines, their business grow 
 ing healthfully with the rapidly developing city 
 and its tributary fields of expanding trade. 
 
 By this course John secured the double ad 
 vantage of not only knowing the work of each 
 employee 's position so well that none could fool 
 or impose upon him and he could use his own 
 invention and initiative to simplify or increase 
 the efficiency of individual jobs, and could break 
 in new men or take temporarily the place of a 
 quitter BUT of being absolutely sure of the 
 stability and progressiveness of the firm itself, 
 the personal peculiarities of its members, and 
 the true state of its plant and financial condi 
 tion, together with the profits reasonably to be 
 expected upon his investment, over and beyond 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 231 
 
 his stipulated salary as a working officer of the 
 corporation. 
 
 During these two years of Ms apprenticeship, 
 unassailed by any pressing financial anxieties, 
 John and Gretchen made the most of his hours 
 of leisure in mutual seeking for intellectual 
 improvement; nor did they neglect to participate 
 in the entertainments and social pleasures of 
 their old associates and new acquaintances and 
 to entertain them in their turn. But best of 
 all to them were those salubrious evenings they 
 spent in walking together and communing with 
 nature under the steadfast stars and fickle moon, 
 and their occasional Sunday excursions to near 
 by points of interest outside the city. They 
 were still young, wisely happy in the present 
 and attached to their homes by tender ties; and 
 while their propinquity was very close and mag 
 netic, it seemed tacitly understood between them 
 that no change in their lives would or could 
 be broached or considered until John should 
 be definitely settled in a permanent, lucrative 
 business position. 
 
 They were not engaged ; yet insensibly they 
 acted as if they were, and their lover-like con 
 stancy and delight in each other's society gave 
 that impression to all around them. In their 
 daily intercourse, howbeit, Gretchen was more 
 of the actual love-maker than John himself, 
 
232 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 who, however much his heart longed for the 
 spiritual and physical sole possession of her, 
 was continually subject to the deterrent, agon 
 izing realization that he was, in all probability, 
 a Negro or at least had Negro blood in his 
 veins. Like a terrible nightmare hanging over 
 him in broad daylight, was the persistent 
 thought that all the beauty, sweetness, love and 
 allurement personified in Gretchen must be de 
 nied himself, and by his own will, solely because 
 of this unanswered question of his birth. The 
 only relieving brightness of hope that lit his 
 future skies was the very uncertainty of the 
 identity and color of skin of his real parents; 
 and that was largely dimmed by the effects of 
 his rearing by and long living with his Negro 
 foster-parents, whom he really loved, and whom 
 he so respected and held in such grateful ven 
 eration that it never entered his head to be 
 ashamed of or deny them. The Mannings knew 
 this and it endeared him all the more tenderly 
 to them. 
 
 Craving Gretchen with all his heart and soul 
 and body, as he did, he yet could not bring him 
 self to sully her with his own ineradicable 
 social flaw through their marriage and its in 
 evitable results. Suppose they came to have 
 children born to them would they be black or 
 white ? It was as though he were a leper, hold- 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 233 
 
 ing her off while madly longing for her; crying 
 out to her that he was " unclean! unclean I" 
 Gretchen, when she spoke of this impediment 
 at all, always protested loyally her utter indif 
 ference to the objection which he still regarded 
 as insurmountable with honor towards her, and 
 begged him to disregard it, and to forget it in 
 the greater felicity such disregard and forget- 
 fulness would bring about for both of them 
 saying, too, that she could not believe in her 
 own heart that he was really a Negro, and that 
 they could afford to leave the solution of his 
 birthright to some happy chance of the future. 
 But he could not justify himself in accepting 
 this gift of the gods so alluringly held out to 
 him, though the alternative of an indefinite 
 postponement of their marriage was fully as 
 bitter as the thought of marrying her under the 
 blight of his disqualifiedness for such a bliss. 
 On either horn of the dilemma perfect happiness 
 seemed denied him, and he was in a fair way 
 of becoming hypochondriac over the paralyzing 
 indecision that, waking or sleeping, haunted 
 him. He worked on mechanically, hoping 
 against despair that a way out would soon be 
 disclosed to him by that higher Power to Whom 
 the different pigments in human skins are but 
 as the different colors of the flowers in the gar 
 den of His Love. 
 
234 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Another Christmas, that day which both 
 families annually celebrated as the anniversary 
 of his sudden, mystifying advent in the home 
 of his foster-parents, was now drawing near; 
 and, ever mingled with and tingeing the 
 thoughts of the gaiety and loving charity and 
 good-will the day always exemplified to him, was 
 the melancholy touch of the baffling secret of 
 his own birth and color, to which he had not the 
 slightest clew. 
 
 To understand more clearly his position, let 
 us suppose for a moment that we, all of us, 
 knew not our own parents, but were dropped 
 from the skies or sprung up out of the bosom 
 of the earth fatherless and motherless and 
 knowing no racial connections. What then? 
 
 The Negro is always to be pitied, and to be 
 helped whenever he shows a disposition to help 
 himself and his own race to rise above the pres 
 ent condition of practical servitude through 
 which they must pass on their age-long journey 
 from slavery to equality of opportunity as 
 other races have had to do before them; not 
 ably the Jews, that race of men without a nation 
 to this day. 
 
 In North America no right-thinking Negro, 
 and very few wrong-thinking ones, has any real 
 belief or respect for miscegenation, but, rather, 
 they regard with suspicion or open disre- 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 235 
 
 spect the white women who marry into their 
 race. The number, especially of negresses, who 
 actually intermarry with the whites is so small 
 as to be negligible. So those who rant about the 
 Negro 's demands for miscegenation, are simply 
 wasting their breath on a fancied evil. (In 
 Brazil and other South American countries the 
 case is different, especially in the Portuguese 
 districts.) 
 
 But the cloud is there! the black, eating 
 despondency of their inequality with the Cau 
 casian race; and the Negroes must be taught 
 and assisted in the only right direction, that 
 of a racial success by an interchange between 
 themselves of trade relations, a building up of 
 larger commercial enterprises by quasi-com 
 munal combinations of their individual capitals 
 and by a social inter-development, mentally, 
 educationally and morally, among their own 
 kind, approaching gradually a higher standard. 
 
 In fine, instead of seeking to assimilate with 
 the whites, they should be a clan to themselves, 
 both socially and financially, like the Hebrews, 
 who, to a large extent, consider all other races 
 a common financial prey, with whom they have 
 not, nor desire, either religious or close social 
 relations, and inter-marriage with whom is 
 against both their religious and social tenets. 
 What the Jews have accomplished by clannish, 
 
236 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 mutual helpfulness, trust-like trade preferences 
 and a common front towards all " outsiders, " 
 the Negroes can also, in time and to a minor 
 degree, succeed in doing; and with monetary 
 success, added to sufficient numerical strength 
 to form satisfactorily their own social circles 
 (properly elevated), they will no longer need 
 the commiseration of white Christians, any more 
 than now do the Jews. 
 
 An example can be pointed out and seen 
 more clearly in the more analogous cases of 
 the different foreign " colonies, " each a law 
 unto itself, scattered through most of our larger, 
 Northern American cities, and the similar herd 
 ing together for mutual racial protection and 
 pleasure in various sections of the North Ameri 
 can farming regions by peoples of a common 
 birth-place and language. These " colonies " 
 and ' ' communities ' ' are rapidly reaping a finan 
 cial success and improved standard of living 
 due, particularly, to that clannishness which 
 makes like buy of like and sell to those without 
 the pale of their local, transported customs and 
 dialects, modified and Americanized i. e.: all 
 other things being equal, they give social pref 
 erence and their trade to their own kind, and 
 combine within their own nationality or race to 
 increase in number and enlarge their business 
 places and political powers and benefits. 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 237 
 
 This is the real secret of any possible racial 
 success. This the Negroes, partly through their 
 foolish jealousy of each other's individual suc 
 cess, either have not firmly grasped, or lack the 
 initiative or outside help and encouragement 
 and capital to start on any plan of considerable 
 magnitude. I am not overlooking the encourag 
 ing fact that there are, at least in Chicago, an 
 increasing number of business and amusement 
 enterprises some conducted partly by white 
 men and some wholly by the Negroes themselves 
 that cater almost exclusively to the colored 
 trade; and it is noticeable that the larger and 
 better and the more progressively managed 
 these places are, the greater seems to be their 
 patronage and financial success. In fact, it 
 would pay the white people to put capital into 
 this proposed enlarged commercial propaganda; 
 but it is absolutely necessary for the Negroes, 
 putting aside all mutual jealousies for the 
 greater desideratum of mutual good, to save or 
 borrow enough, collectively, to own, in time, all 
 such establishments themselves, before they can 
 become independent of the Caucasians, and suf 
 ficient unto themselves. 
 
 There are, too, many lines of business in 
 which, with sufficient capital, experience and 
 enterprise, they can combine to successfully sell 
 to the white population on a large scale, and 
 
238 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 thus insure equality of opportunity in those 
 particular lines. The very capital and enter 
 prise thus exhibited by them would create in 
 creased respect for them among the white races 
 and result in a more ambitious standard of 
 comparison on their own part that would bring 
 its own content. 
 
 Individually, Negroes have already achieved 
 prosperity of a kind and in cases few and far 
 between, but to upraise them as a rave requires 
 concentrated and concerted action towards one 
 concrete goal after another; and the Negro, or 
 white man, who is instrumental in blazing wide 
 for them the path to the accomplishment of this 
 dream of co-ordinating co-operation, will be a 
 second Emancipator of their race and a friend 
 to all humanity. 
 
 Here, in the North, the Negro is measurably 
 free to mingle with the whites he rides on the 
 same cars, attends the same schools and 
 churches, buys of the same stores, eats in the 
 same lunch rooms, drinks in the same saloons, 
 visits the same theatres and art galleries, and, 
 in the older, changing, residential parts of the 
 city, lives on the same streets. Some of the 
 higher-priced and more exclusive of these places 
 are more or less barred to him, but they almost 
 equally bar the white person of small means by 
 not catering to him, nor making him welcome. 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 239 
 
 The Negro is highly imitative and, like the 
 Jew, aspires to every advantage of the white 
 Christian, and tries to encroach upon the homes 
 and places of abode of the better class of the 
 latter as nearly as possible, thinking, like the 
 Jew, that they must be the more desirable, or 
 most to be desired. But the Negro must under 
 stand thoroughly that historically he is many 
 centuries behind the Jew in development, and 
 as many centuries nearer to his old slavery than 
 the Jew is to his ancient Egyptian bondage. 
 And he must keep in mind, too, that Jews are 
 the first prey of new ideas, with their alert in 
 tellect, their swift reception, their keen critical 
 sense. Instead of 1 1 kicking against the pricks ' ' 
 of his greater social, commercial and labor limi 
 tations, he should do as the Jews have done 
 through generation after generation (in spite 
 of the ostracism and outrages perpetrated upon 
 them in many countries, even now) viz.: pry 
 his way slowly into each and every working 
 trade and business and vocation and profession, 
 one after another; not forgetting the Jewish 
 formula of following closely in the footsteps 
 of each leader who succeeds in breaking into 
 a particular line of human endeavor and thus 
 gradually augmenting their numbers in each 
 line in which a foothold once is gained by them. 
 
 All this could be said in the passing of a 
 
240 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 street car from home to working place or writ 
 ten within the space of a single ledger-page, 
 but its actual full consummation is, perhaps, 
 the work of life-times yet to come. But all evo 
 lutions have their striking crises, and, only 
 recently, certain small foreign kingdoms sprang 
 up republics over night. Japan has in less than 
 a score of years become almost completely trans 
 mogrified in its national life and progress, and 
 even Turkey and China have blossomed full 
 blown into a higher freedom, setting aside in an 
 hour the degenerating influences and customs, 
 the corruption and abuses, of seemingly endless 
 and impregnable powers inherited from the dark 
 ages. Like fires that had smouldered for years, 
 they burst suddenly and surely into the flames 
 of either fiery or peaceful revolution. 
 
 So the Negro's amelioration of his own con 
 ditions, when once started along intelligent, far- 
 seeing courses, may be brought to fruition more 
 abruptly than we can conceive. Dr. Hollis 
 Burke Prissel, doctor of human kindness, has, 
 through his tireless and unadvertised efforts 
 and aided wholly by Northern donors, sent out 
 thousands of pupils to carry the Hampton Insti 
 tute spirit of labor and service into the world. 
 
 Booker T. Washington has formulated and 
 promulgated a noble and far-reaching concep 
 tion in his Tuskegee Institute, a university for 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 241 
 
 Negroes, with its practical instruction in farm 
 ing and trade lines and the professions, and its 
 policy of sending out its graduates and teachers 
 as leaders of smaller Negro schools; but the 
 great mass of Negroes of the present generation 
 should not and cannot wait inanely for such 
 round-about help alone especially in the North, 
 where opportunities for radical advancement, 
 particularly in the cities, can be made and util 
 ized now and at once. Sporadic attempts have 
 been made from time to time, to better the Ne 
 gro's position, both by individuals and asso 
 ciations; and through the Negroes' National 
 Business League considerable organized prog 
 ress has already been made. With the financial 
 assistance of several public-spirited millionaires 
 of Chicago, notably Julius Bosenwald, Cyrus 
 H. McCormick, N. W. Harris and Mrs. Gustavus 
 F. Swift, ten thousand Negroes have just con 
 tributed and collected the funds needed for the 
 erection of the first colored Y. M. C. A. building 
 in that city, if not in the United States. The 
 National Association of Colored Business Men 
 (or National Negro Business League) has just 
 held an important convention in the same city. 
 The following clippings from the Chicago 
 Tribune of August twenty-second, twenty-third 
 and twenty-fourth, 1912, reproduced here by 
 permission, show conclusively the practicability 
 
242 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 of the ideas herein emphasized and the ready, 
 self -helpful response of the Negro to beneficent 
 exploitation : 
 
 CITES NEGRO DUTY IN CHICAGO 'BELT' 
 
 Booker T.Washington Holds Race Responsible 
 for All Its Vice and Crime 
 
 TELLS OF OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 Asserts Colored Merchants of the South Gain Trade 
 of White Residents There 
 
 Booker T. Washington, speaking before the convention 
 of the National Negro Business League at the Institutional 
 Church, Dearborn near Thirty-eighth street, last night, 
 urged on the members of Chicago's Negro colony their 
 responsibility for keeping the "black belt" free from crime 
 and vice. 
 
 "I have been surprised and delighted at the progress 
 made by colored business men in Chicago. As I drove down 
 State street the other day for a mile and a half I am sure 
 that two-thirds of the places of business I saw were con 
 ducted by colored men. 
 
 "I was equally delighted to discover what handsome 
 houses many of our people were living in. As I have had 
 a chance to visit these houses I have been pleased to find 
 how handsomely, even artistically, they were furnished 
 and how carefully and neatly they were maintained. 
 
 LAUDS PROGRESS HERE. 
 
 "It would be a revelation to our people of forty years 
 ago to see the kind of homes in which their children and 
 grandchildren were beginning to live. I do not think there 
 is a large city in this country where there is a community 
 of colored people living together in such numbers as you 
 do here which has made so rapid progress in so short a 
 time. 
 
 "All this imposes a heavy responsibility. In a section 
 of the city where the colored people are in the majority, 
 the colored people are responsible for conditions in that por 
 tion of the city. If there is drunkenness, if there is gamb- 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 243 
 
 ling, if there is crime, the colored people will be held re 
 sponsible, because this is a recognized colored community. 
 
 "I wish to emphasize particularly to members of my 
 race who have come here from the South, where they have 
 had little or no share in the government by which they are 
 controlled, that here in Chicago a new and grave responsi 
 bility rests upon them in that respect. It rests on the Ne 
 groes of Chicago to demonstrate to the world to what 
 extent a Negro community like this, amid all the tempta 
 tions of a great city, can make itself a united, progressive, 
 law-abiding community, one that will be looked up to and 
 respected. 
 
 SAYS NEGROES MUST UNITE 
 
 "In order to accomplish this we must unite ourselves 
 with all the forces in this city that are striving for better 
 things. We must unite all the best element among our 
 selves. The local business league can exercise a wide influ 
 ence in this direction. It can do this by putting its influ 
 ence behind the man or the business who is really trying 
 to do a good thing. 
 
 "At the present time there are more than 270,000,000 
 acres of unused and unoccupied land in the South and West. 
 In fact, one-half of the land in the South and two-thirds of 
 the lands in the West is still unused. Now is the time for 
 us to become the owners and users of our share before it 
 is too late. From ownership of the soil comes independence, 
 self-support, happiness, and real manhood rights. Land 
 that can be gotten at $10 an acre now, a few years hence 
 cannot be gotten for two and three times as much. 
 
 "There are places in the South for 5,000 additional dry 
 goods stores and there are colored people enough to support 
 them. In the South the Negro merchant is not dependent 
 on the trade of his own race alone. 
 
 SAYS WHITE MEN PATRONIZE NEGROES 
 
 "Not only the colored man trades at the colored man's 
 dry goods store, but the best white people are not afraid 
 to patronize a first class Negro store. The same thing 
 is true of other business enterprises owned and controlled 
 by colored people. 
 
 "There are openings in the south for at least 8,000 
 additional grocery stores, for 3,500 drug stores. There are 
 openings in the south for 2,000 shoe stores, 1,500 mil 
 linery stores, and there are communities in the south where 
 2,000 negro banks can be operated and supported. Further 
 than this, there are places in the south where at least 
 twenty-five self-governing, self-supporting, self-directing 
 towns or cities may be established, where the colored people 
 can have their own mayor, their own board of aldermen, 
 their own self-government from every point of view. In 
 
244 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 the last analysis, local self-government is the most precious 
 kind of government. 
 
 "All that I am here advocating and emphasizing does 
 not mean the limitation or circumscribing of our race men 
 tally, morally, civilly, or in other directions, but it does 
 mean real growth and real independence in all these direc 
 tions." 
 
 NEGROES REVEAL SUCCESS SECRETS 
 
 Say Business Opportunities Depend on Willing 
 ness to Work Well and Honestly 
 
 PUT BAR ON COLOR LINE" 
 
 'Patronize Your Own People," Advises One Speaker 
 at Chicago Convention 
 
 Business opportunities for the American Negro depend 
 on his willingness to work well and honestly. Courage, 
 imagination, effort, and energy are the groundwork of suc 
 cess in industrial pursuits. 
 
 This is the story being told and retold by successful 
 Negro business men and educators at the thirteenth annual 
 meeting of the National Negro Business League at Institu 
 tional church, 3824 South Dearborn street. 
 
 "The Negro never will be able to accomplish anything 
 by sitting around and complaining," said Charles Banks, 
 vice president,' in calling the organization to order yester 
 day. "The Negro has it in his power to accomplish wonders 
 in the fields of industry if he but shows industry, honesty, 
 and thrift." , 
 
 PUBLISHER TELLS SUCCESS 
 
 Dr. R. H. Boyd of Nashville, Tenn., told of the growth 
 of a publishing business which he started in 1896, without 
 assistance and with little capital. Today, according to Dr. 
 Boyd, the business employs about 200 Negro men and is 
 rated at $350,000. 
 
 "The Negro should start out for himself and be willing 
 to work well and honestly to accomplish something," Dr. 
 Boyd said. "It Is imperative for the welfare of the race that 
 we as Negroes should produce, should manufacture some of 
 everything we consume." 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 245 
 
 J. H. Phillips, Montgomery, Ala., told of industrial in 
 surance as developed by and among Negroes. He said the 
 Mutual Aid Association of Mobile, Ala., which started six 
 teen years ago with a membership of six, had written over 
 510,000,000 worth of business and had paid to beneficiaries 
 more than $3,100,000. Five hundred Negro men and women 
 are employed by the company in Florida, Alabama, and Mis 
 sissippi. 
 
 W. H. Bell, Evansville, Ind., related how he had started 
 on a salary of 50 cents a day and now owns and controls 
 a business which pays taxes on $20,000 worth of property. 
 
 NEVER DRAWS COLOR LINE. 
 
 "I never draw the color line," said L. W. Mclntyre of 
 Louisiana. "When I want a house I draw the plans and 
 let the contractors submit bids and let the work to the 
 lowest responsible bidder, whether he is white or black. 
 We cannot afford to draw the color line." 
 
 "The success of the Negro depends on the encourage 
 ment he receives from his own people as well as upon 
 the honest effort he makes to succeed," declared Joseph 
 L. Jones of Cincinnati, O., manager of the Central Regalia 
 Company. "Every mother and father," he said, "should en 
 courage their children to buy candy from negro merchants. 
 They should patronize a Negro grocer, and, when sick, call 
 a Negro doctor." 
 
 THE NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE 
 
 (Chicago Tribune Editorial) 
 
 The National Negro Business League, which held its 
 thirteenth annual convention this week in Chicago, is one 
 of several means which Dr. Booker T. Washington, its 
 founder and president, has devised to encourage and direct 
 his people in their efforts to help themselves. This league, 
 which was organized in Boston twelve years ago, has now 
 extended its influence through local leagues to nearly every 
 part of the United States where there are any considerable 
 number of colored people living. It has local organizations 
 in thirty-two states, and in ten southern states these local 
 leagues have united to form state organizations. 
 
 In 1906 there was organized, in close affiliation with the 
 business league, the National Negro Bankers' Association. 
 This was followed by the organization of the Negro Press 
 Association and the Negro Bar Association, each of which 
 organizations holds its sessions separately but in connec 
 tion with the meetings of the league. 
 
246 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Some notion of the variety and general character of 
 the work and influence of these subsidiary organizations 
 may be gathered from the recently issued twelfth annual 
 report. At the last meeting of the league, for example, 
 a delegate from St. Denis, Md., which seems to be a little 
 country village in the midst of a rich truck farming country, 
 reported that the members of the local organization at that 
 place most of whom, like himself, were prosperous farmers 
 had organized the previous year an association for co 
 operative buying, and had made a saving the first year 
 of $300 in the cost of fertilizer alone. This first attempt 
 at co-operative buying had been so successful that they 
 proposed to do the same thing on a grander scale the fol 
 lowing year. It has been frequently suggested that co 
 operative associations such as exist among the small farm 
 ers in every part of Europe might offer a solution of the 
 problem of the Negro farmer in the south, but this is the 
 first instance of which we have any report where the ex 
 periment has been tried. 
 
 Another delegate from the little Negro town of Boley, 
 Okla., which claims the distinction of having a population 
 of 4,000 without a single white inhabitant, reported that 
 the business league at that place was doing the work of a 
 chamber of commerce. It was advertising the town through 
 out the south, promoting immigration, assisting in the 
 establishment of new enterprises, and in general promoting 
 the business interests of the town. Boley already has a 
 waterworks system, an electric lighting plant, four cotton 
 gins, not to speak of five churches and a Masonic Temple, 
 and continues to grow and prosper. 
 
 On the other hand, the report of the Negro Bankers, 
 Association, which represents some twenty-five of the sixty- 
 one Negro banks in the whole of the United States, re 
 ported that plans were in preparation to establish a strong 
 central bank in which each of the smaller banks, being 
 members of the association, would be required to deposit 
 a reserve fund, and this reserve would then be the means 
 of mutual control and support to all its members. 
 
 These instances illustrate some of the many ways in 
 which the Negro Business League is helping the Negro peo 
 ple to turn to use the opportunities about them; to build 
 up, out of their poverty and inexperience, strong and sub 
 stantial business institutions, which will secure to them 
 and their children some of the fruits of their labor and 
 enable future generations to begin their life on a higher 
 plane than that of their predecessors. 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 247 
 
 NEGRO'S COLOR NO HANDICAP? 
 
 Speakers Say Black Skin Is No Bar to Success 
 
 FORTY BANKERS AS EXHIBIT 
 
 Man Who Was Born a Slave Now Heads $100,000 Concern 
 
 Negro business men and merchants from all sections 
 of the country were introduced yesterday before the Na 
 tional Negro Business League at Institutional church, 3824 
 South Dearborn street, as proof that color is no bar to 
 success. 
 
 Growth of Mound Bayou, Miss., from a few shacks to 
 a prosperous business community, with a population of 
 more than 1,000 Negroes, was told by Isaiah T. Montgomery, 
 founder of the town. It now has a bank, a Carnegie li 
 brary, oil and lumber mills, churches, a co-operative mer 
 cantile house, and other institutions. 
 
 WAS BORN A SLAVE. 
 
 " I was born a slave in 1347 on a plantation owned by 
 Joseph E. Davis, brother of the confederate president," 
 the speaker said. "In 1887, being attracted by the Yazoo 
 delta land, I established a colony. The town now compares 
 favorably with other towns of its size in the state. The 
 town is inhabited exclusively by Negroes and I am presi 
 dent of a $100,000 company which recently has erected a 
 large mill for making cottonseed oil. The land, which 
 some years ago might have been bought for $1 an acre, 
 now is held at $100 an acre." 
 
 Forty Negro bankers attended the last day's session 
 of the league and told of their success. W. R. Pettiford 
 told how the Penny Savings bank was organized in Bir 
 mingham, Ala,, twenty-two years ago. 
 
 "As a race," he said, "we must enter every field oc 
 cupied by other people, and if we fail in this we will never 
 be able to take a place in the industrial world." 
 
 NEGRO LAWYER SUCCEEDS 
 
 P. W. Howard of Jackson, Miss., a lawyer, told of prog 
 ress being made by professional men among his race, and 
 predicted the success of any Negro with ambition and will 
 ingness to work hard. 
 
 "Some persons may consider the idea of North or 
 South," said S. E. Wiggins, Little Rock, Ark., "but a man 
 is a man the world over and will be recognized as such 
 if he shows the proper respect for himself and for others." 
 
248 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 PLEADS FOR "SIMPLE JUSTICE" 
 
 FOR THE AMERICAN NEGRO 
 
 Judge Marcus Kavanagh Advocates National Com 
 mission to Investigate Existing Prejudices 
 
 (From Chicago Tribune of Oct. 12, IQ/S) 
 
 In a plea for "simple justice" for the American Negro 
 Judge Marcus Kavanagh of the Superior Court In a speech 
 before the Irish Fellowship club at the Hotel La Salle yes 
 terday, advocated the appointment of a national commission 
 to inquire into existing prejudices which bar Negroes of 
 good education from competing with whites in the business 
 world. His subject was "The Future of the American 
 Negro." 
 
 "In 1790 there were less than 800,000 Negroes in this 
 country, and today we have more than 10,000,000," he said. 
 "Few of these are of pure African blood, and nearly all 
 have white blood; millions more white than black. Here 
 they are about us, with white men's hearts and white men's 
 brains, but shut out from everything in this life worth 
 while. 
 
 "What is the cure for this situation? Why, the same 
 simple cure that has remedied every social evil since the 
 world began simple justice. The first thing to be done 
 is to free ourselves from prejudices, then to free others; 
 and I propose the appointment of a national commission 
 to take evidence and report on this matter." 
 
 These are but the signs of the times, and 
 indicate the truth of the inevitable progress that 
 is bound to ensue from a broader, more unselfish 
 policy, as outlined here. 
 
 The Negro has a brain his race has num- 
 uers. Show him how to use these two elements 
 of progress for the collective gain of his own 
 people, and then give him the chance to do it! 
 He is adaptable he has every faculty of the 
 white man. A great number of his race are 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 249 
 
 themselves partly white. Then let the white 
 man help him to organize along these lines, and 
 he will help himself and help the white man, 
 too; and forming a social aristocracy of his 
 own, like the Jew, he will have no need or desire 
 for social recognition by the aristocracy of the 
 white Christian, just as the Jew has none. 
 
 Let us help him to open up more expedi- 
 tiously those fields of labor and mechanical skill, 
 of clerical and sales activities, of trades and 
 professions, from which he is temporarily 
 barred, by making it possible for him to estab 
 lish in each of them independent owning cor 
 porations of his own which can and will employ 
 his own race, after they have been properly 
 taught by white experts in each line taken up, 
 until the quality of their workmanship is equal 
 to that of white industrial workers; and then 
 their products will sell anywhere on their own 
 merits, just as do those of the Jews. The man 
 who says or believes that the Negroes are a de 
 graded race, and always will be, " there isn't 
 any help for them, and you can't make anything 
 of them if you try!" is himself hopelessly be 
 hind the times. 
 
 But beyond all this, let us not forget that 
 our highest prerogative is to be American citi 
 zens; our highest ideal to improve the standard 
 of living of each and every one of us; our high- 
 
250 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 est safety to hasten the homogeneity of our nu 
 merous races of compatriots and that the Ne 
 groes have come to stay, and must be reckoned 
 with in all these respects. Let us remember, 
 too, that they are human and have hearts that 
 suffer and minds that unconsciously grope to 
 ward higher things, and that poverty without 
 opportunity is akin to slavery. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was kind to them let 
 us be kinder He would wish it. A race for 
 whose bodily freedom so many brave men 
 fought and died, so many noble women starved 
 and mourned and suffered ; cannot be abandoned 
 to an ignoble fate without stultifying ourselves 
 and Him, remembering, as we must, the incal 
 culable cost and sacrifice at which our fathers 
 set them free. 
 
 We must help them repay that tremendous 
 gift by enabling them, through our advice and 
 assistance and planning, to become of far, far 
 greater service, both to themselves and our 
 selves, that the blood of our fathers and our 
 mother's tears shall not prove to have been 
 shed in vain. We should keep ever before us 
 the one tangible, logical, economic, selfish fact, 
 that the more prosperous we can aid the Ne 
 groes to become, the more benefit will come 
 back to us from that same prosperity we help 
 to engender in them. 
 
HOME AGAIN RACE PROBLEM 251 
 
 The constant, unceasing, increasing tendency 
 and demand of all races and conditions of men 
 and women leads now towards greater financial 
 and legal equality greater industrial and so 
 cial justice. Within the cycle of the last few 
 years hundreds of new commercial, industrial, 
 educational and professional fields have been 
 thrown open to white women, especially in our 
 own country of the United States, and which 
 must indubitably lead to universal equal suf 
 frage for them, as it has already done locally 
 in several states. The proletariat of every na 
 tion is now rising and demanding, and over 
 turning the deadening sod of indifference to 
 their wants and desires and aspirations which 
 has long kept them buried in social oblivion. 
 Separated yet simultaneously, they are all striv 
 ing together towards a new birth of Freedom. 
 And in these days of quick transit and light 
 ning-swift, far-flung dissemination of the daily 
 news of the world, les miserables of each coun 
 try are learning of the quickened struggles of 
 their submerged contemporaries in every other 
 country are comparing notes and urging each 
 other on in the good work. And so, happily, 
 the mental uprising will continue till men are 
 sufficiently civilized and human to do justice 
 without being forced at the point of the bay 
 onet. 
 
252 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Can we consistently expect the Negro not to 
 be warmed, if not inflamed, by this same spirit 
 of unrest and uplift that is in the very air we 
 breathe? 
 
 Although the North American Negroes now 
 are but a race, and not an autonomous nation 
 by themselves, they cannot be left behind by us 
 in the general march of advance of all mankind. 
 Our American body politic cannot now be, and 
 continue increasingly to become, healthy, vig 
 orous and truly progressive so long as it per 
 mits a single member of its composing races to 
 lag behind in sickness of spirit, paucity of op 
 portunity and comparative retrogression of con 
 dition. We are one and indivisible in the great 
 order of creation and humanity; and "progress 
 is inevitable!" 
 
 And it is altogether better and safer and 
 more profitable to act the "good Samaritan " 
 towards the Negro now, than to delay until that 
 course is forced upon us by our own need of 
 their salvation what time it is forcibly borne 
 in upon us that, even in the human sense, "a 
 chain is only as strong as its weakest link." 
 
 The history of all unprogressive countries, 
 and that of our own Southern States, is a per 
 petually reiterated lesson to us that the nation 
 which neglects its dependents neglects itself. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE BUM 
 
 >OHN'S own secret misery during these 
 two years had the purifying and ennob 
 ling result of opening his heart to the 
 misfortunes and disabilities of others 
 who, financially at least, were more to be pitied 
 than himself; and a fellow-feeling for their un- 
 happiness and haunting want caused him to 
 watch out for chances to help such of them as 
 he incidentally ran across, and even to hunt 
 up cases of unusual and unmerited destitution. 
 Such outright charity and such temporary 
 aid to struggling honesty and effort as he could 
 afford, he did not trust to the cold indifference, 
 hostile and untactful red tape and grafting 
 favoritism of paid employees of charity organ 
 izations, as is commonly done by the rich today, 
 but preferred to dispense unheralded and with 
 his own hands and judgment. Thus he saved 
 his beneficiaries from the shame of publicity 
 and from the prying, classifying, common-level 
 ing, indiscriminating, lie-breeding methods of 
 the semi-public charitable societies, whose op 
 erating expenses and salaries often eat up half 
 the contributions received, before they reached 
 their supposed recipients. 
 
 253 
 
254 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 Wise private and personal application of 
 humanitarianism is as much better in its effects 
 upon the really deserving, as much more pre 
 ferred and as much less dreaded by those who 
 really ought to be helped, than is organized 
 charity, as the latter is less dreaded and more 
 preferred than the "county agent," dispenser 
 (?) of the city's appropriations for charitable 
 purposes the necessity of having to turn to 
 whom for help is in turn less distressing and 
 disgracing than practical imprisonment and the 
 separation of man and wife in the county poor 
 house (half filled with the senilely imbecile and 
 the mildly insane). 
 
 In personally investigated and personally 
 aided cases of partial or total destitution or lack 
 of work, the philanthropically inclined give not 
 only their money and influence, but also their 
 time, brains and sympathy that milk of human 
 kindness and they do not have to treat all 
 applicants alike, making mere machines of them 
 selves and those they would aid as is, by the 
 way, the growing tendency of corporations and 
 many large firms to do now in their dealings 
 with and rules for their employees and custom 
 ers in their mercenary attempts to eliminate 
 the human equation from business. This at 
 tempted destruction of personality may go on, 
 
THE BUM 255 
 
 but it will some day react upon these econo 
 mizers of smiles. 
 
 One rainy night in the cold spring of the sec 
 ond year of John's manufacturing apprentice 
 ship, he had dined down-town with a former 
 college class-mate who was taking a late train 
 out of the city. 
 
 After seeing his friend off at the Lake Shore 
 and Michigan Southern Railway station in Van 
 Buren street, he had walked east to Clark street 
 on his way to the street car, when his attention 
 was attracted by the peculiar actions and mis 
 erable plight of a middle-aged man standing 
 at the outside edge of the sidewalk on the cor 
 ner, unsheltered from the slowly-driving rain. 
 The man was raggedly dressed, with broken 
 shoes, a battered derby hat and no overcoat; 
 and although he was shivering as with a chill 
 and rocking on his feet in drunken weakness, 
 he made no move to get under cover from the 
 inclement weather; but every minute or two 
 he would plunge out into the street from the 
 raised sidewalk, and then invariably hesitate, 
 with the vacillation of intoxication, and return 
 to his former position on the sidewalk. He was 
 eating something he extracted in broken pieces 
 from a dirty paper bag in a desultory way, and 
 gazing straight ahead, unmindful of his sur 
 roundings and occasional curious observers. 
 
256 EEIC MAROTTE 
 
 John backed up against a lighted show-win 
 dow and stood there, under his umbrella, for 
 several minutes, fascinated by the danger the 
 besotted brute tempted of being run over by 
 street cars or wagons in his repeated "sortees" 
 into the street; his ready sympathy quickening 
 for the poor devil as he perceived that no one 
 else glanced at him a second time or made any 
 motion towards taking him in hand. 
 
 Crossing the street to the diagonally oppo 
 site corner, John approached a policeman sta 
 tioned there like a " fixed star/' and in a quiet 
 manner called his official heeding to the drunken 
 man's dangerous condition and situation. The 
 "cop" merely shrugged his shoulders, saying: 
 
 "Shure, he don't want me to 'run him in'; 
 he's all right just a little 'biled,' that's all; 
 say! you must be a grane one aroun' here, or 
 you'd know this strate is full of 'barrel-house' 
 bums like him. I cud fill ther whole domned 
 station wid 'em! But what 'ud be the use? 
 they've got no money to pay ther jedge wid. 
 Lave him be! I need me beauty slape in ther 
 morning, and can't stay up till noon hanging 
 aroun ' ther durthy coort rooms to appear agin ' 
 the likes o' him. G'wan now! there's nawthin' 
 in it!" 
 
 John, thinking the roundsman probably 
 spoke out of the wisdom of experience, retraced 
 
THE BUM 257 
 
 his steps, and, going into the corner store, asked 
 a clerk to change a five-dollar bill for him. At 
 the man's askant look he explained that he 
 wanted the change so he could give something 
 to the human derelict outside, pointing him 
 out to the clerk at the same time. The latter 
 smiled ironically and shook his head, remon 
 strating that it was a common sight there and 
 that the man was, no doubt, a "dope fiend, M 
 to whom money would do no good. In spite 
 of this second admonition that he was only 
 throwing away his time and money, John re 
 mained on the corner watching the pitiable 
 creature for fully ten minutes. Then, just as 
 he had about made up his mind to touch his 
 sleeve and accost him in words, the man made 
 another lurch back into the roadway, and this 
 time continued across to the other side of Clark 
 street. 
 
 John followed him south on his own side of 
 the street until he saw him climbing the long 
 inside front steps of a fifteen-cent lodging house, 
 where he fell exhausted halfway up. Some fate 
 ful impulse some unaccountable interest 
 stronger than simple compassion, in this par 
 ticular bum led John to cross over and assist 
 him up to the dingy office of the ' ' hotel. ' ' There 
 he asked the coatless, pipe-smoking clerk in 
 charge to let him occupy one of the "horse- 
 
258 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 stall" bed-rooms, and guaranteed his small bill, 
 remarking that he would call there again next 
 evening to talk with the tramp. 
 
 The clerk grumpily hustled his new guest off 
 to bed without deeming it worth while to ask 
 him if he had any " valuables " to deposit in 
 the office safe. The sodden mass of limp human 
 ity had not uttered a word of either thanks or 
 remonstrance during these proceedings, but ac 
 quiesced in them in a dumb brute way. He did 
 not even look at John as the clerk conducted 
 him up a second flight of uncarpeted stairs. 
 The latter waited for the clerk's return, when 
 he handed him a silver dollar for food for his 
 " protege, " and requested him to tell him in 
 the morning, or have him told by the day clerk, 
 that it would be well, for his own sake, to sober 
 up before he saw him again. 
 
 When John once more entered the low room 
 ing house, early on the following night, he 
 found his man up and " dressed " and seated 
 in a soiled, high-backed, wooden office chair, 
 amusing himself by looking out into the well- 
 lighted and well-thronged street. He appeared 
 to be in a reasonably sober state (for him) and 
 turned to John expectantly and questioningly 
 when he pulled up a chair alongside of him 
 and asked him "How he felt now?" After a 
 few commonplace remarks, John asked him, 
 
THE BUM 259 
 
 casually raising his eyes to the office clock, 
 "if he felt like taking a bite of something yet; 
 or whether his stomach was still too weak to 
 hold < solid' food." This he did in the hope of 
 inducing him to let him escort him to some mod 
 erate-priced restaurant in the vicinity, where 
 they might secure a table all by themselves and 
 talk confidentially; for he wished to learn, if he 
 could, the man's history and plans, if any, for 
 the future, before deciding what to do for him. 
 The bum was now hungry, for a wonder, and 
 presently the two found themselves seated at 
 one of the few small tables in a sparsely-filled 
 lunch room a block away, where John ordered 
 a "slaughter-in-the-pan" (hash-house steak) 
 and "draw-one" (cup of muddy coffee) for his 
 companion, nibbling on an emaciated, cadaver 
 ous slice of pie himself as he waited for him to 
 fill up and grow "mellow." John did not "use 
 the filthy weed," but ordered more coffee and 
 a couple of "stinkers" (rank cigars) for the 
 other when he had done "stowing the grub"; 
 and after a dozen solacing puffs on "the big 
 cigar of the Havana," the prodigal began of 
 his own accord the story of his life. Most of 
 the tale was prosaic and sorry enough, the com 
 mon story of the average "has been" of the 
 underworld, but one strange adventure in it was 
 out of the ordinary and held John spell-bound 
 
260 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 throughout its entire recital. Divested of as 
 much as possible of the idiom in which the man 
 narrated it, a conglomerate mixture of Ameri 
 can slang, French-Canadian patois and half- 
 breed Indian dialect, this long but remarkable 
 chapter of his history ran as follows: 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE BUM'S LONG TALE OF HIS REMARKABLE 
 ADVENTURE 
 
 DBOUT twenty-one to twenty-two 
 years ago I was a frontiersman in 
 Middle-Western Canada. I had 
 saved a little money (principally 
 because I had no chance to spend 
 it there), and was plodding along comfortably 
 enough in a rough way, when I became in 
 fatuated with a woman, whose name would not 
 interest you (one of those few of her sex who 
 had drifted that far west), and who, while 
 claiming to have independent means of her own, 
 was secretly a courtesan, as I found out later. 
 She was, in the very nature of the circumstances, 
 much sought after by the ignorant and lone 
 some men around her, but she pretended to 
 give my attentions the preference over all 
 others. I was quite young then, barely of age, 
 and had had little experience with women of 
 her sort, or of any sort for that matter; so I 
 believed all she told me, just as she had in 
 tended I should do. 
 
 ' ' There was one particularly obnoxious bully 
 in the little settlement, however, to whom she 
 
 261 
 
262 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 had evidently permitted still greater personal 
 liberties with herself than she allowed me; and 
 we, as rough men will, began to eye each other 
 like two rival bucks coveting the same doe. 
 
 "To make a long story short, this bully, as I 
 supposed, shot at me from ambush one dark 
 night in late winter. I was unarmed at the 
 time. I had long suspected him of some such 
 cowardly intention, from his bragging and slur 
 ring talk about me among the other men, and 
 I knew I had no other enemy there, so I in 
 stantly concluded it was he who fired the shot; 
 and when I found I was not hit by his bullets, 
 I thought quickly and dropped to the ground 
 as though dead played ' possum' in fact. I 
 was partially covered by the low thicket where 
 I fell, but knew that he dared not approach me 
 to see how badly I might be wounded for fear 
 of disclosing his own identity. 
 
 "I heard him making his way cautiously 
 out of the woods and towards the settlement; 
 still I lay there for another half hour, waiting 
 to learn whether anyone else had heard the shot; 
 but no one came near me. Then I got up 
 stealthily and turned off in the opposite direc 
 tion. After a couple of hours ' tramp I reached 
 the camp of a half-breed Indian trapper, about 
 ten miles to the southeast, whom I had be 
 friended on several occasions and in whose 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 263 
 
 friendship and secrecy I felt I could trust. He 
 was, fortunately, in camp, and took me in with 
 little explanation on my part, agreeing to se 
 crete me there for a couple of days, until my 
 plans ripened. 
 
 " There was little or no legal justice to be 
 had in that wilderness in those early pioneering 
 days, except for such public opinion as might 
 express itself through brute force or the swing 
 ing rope, and I knew that I must either 'get' 
 my enemy or let him 'get' me or one of us 
 must leave the immediate neighborhood. 
 
 "I was hot-blooded by nature and, besides, 
 was really enamored of the woman who was 
 the cause of all the trouble between us; and I 
 determined that I would not run from him, but 
 would 'get' him first, as according to the crude 
 ethics of that place and date his attempt upon 
 my life amply justified me in taking his, and 
 with as little danger as possible of exposing my 
 own connection with his death. 
 
 "Leaving the trapper's hut alone on the 
 second night of my hiding, I entered the small 
 wilderness colony unobserved and began my 
 vigils for a chance of catching the bully off 
 his guard. I figured that if no one had re 
 ported the finding of my dead body in the woods 
 by this time, he would have been more than 
 likely to go back to the scene of his attempted 
 
264 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 murder to make sure of his work drawn there, 
 too, perhaps, by that magnetic attraction which 
 is said to compel a murderer, even against his 
 own will and judgment, to return to the fatal 
 spot where his crime was committed. If so, 
 he would by now, of course, have discovered 
 there the absence of any trace of my corpse, 
 and would at once conjecture that I had escaped 
 alive and be on the lookout for my reprisal. 
 
 "For two days more I hid in the outskirts, 
 and finally, on the third morning, trailed him 
 into the timber until the settlement lay beyond 
 the sound of a gun-shot. I came upon him just 
 as he was crossing a wide, semi-circular open 
 ing flanked by the continuous forest. He heard 
 the crackling of a twig under my foot, and 
 swung around on his heel just as I was about 
 to emerge from the edge of the tree-line behind 
 him. 
 
 "We both drew and fired at the same instant, 
 but he carried only a large revolver, while I was 
 ' toting ' a rifle. Two shots rang out in the open 
 ing; I felt his ball tearing through my left 
 sleeve, grazing my arm, and instinctively I 
 jumped for a protecting tree-trunk. Peering 
 around the edge of my shelter warily after a 
 minute or two, I saw him lying prone and mo 
 tionless on the coarse grass, which was but 
 thinly covered by the snow. Holding my rifle 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 265 
 
 in firing position lest he be only feigning un 
 consciousness in order to entrap me, I stepped 
 slowly and vigilantly towards him, until I could 
 see his face bathed in blood and his revolver re 
 clining a few feet away, where it had slipped 
 from his apparently lifeless hand. I went up 
 close to him and examined his body hurriedly 
 for any evidence of life, but found none. My 
 bullet had entered the upper part of his fore 
 head. 
 
 "At such a time one does not reason ex 
 haustively, and in the trepidation and fear of 
 pursuit of one who has just taken the life of a 
 human being, I turned about and fled the fear 
 some spot. I kept to the woods all that day. 
 The night came on early and dark; there were 
 no lamps in the single main street of the un 
 couth village, and I haunted its environs until 
 my reappearance among the houses should be 
 safe from discovery. I then slunk along to the 
 back door of the one-story affair occupied by 
 the 'bold' woman whom I still imagined to be 
 in love with me, and rapped on it with a muf 
 fled hand. 
 
 "She came to the door in her night-dress 
 and, at my insistent demands, opened it just 
 wide enough to let me pass in, she trembling 
 in terror before my ghastly face and stealthy 
 movements and shifting glances. The one lamp 
 
266 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 the house contained was turned low in the front 
 room, but we stood together in the semi-obscur 
 ity of her bed-room while I rapidly acquainted 
 her in disconnected whispers with the tragic 
 happenings of the past five days and their awful 
 conclusion. I told her I must fly at once that 
 very minute for the United States border, and 
 implored her, as she loved me, to follow after 
 me later and meet me at a certain street and 
 number in St. Paul where an old 'pal' of mine 
 hung out, and to write me in advance of her 
 coming if she could find a way to get the letter 
 off addressed to me under cover of my St. Paul 
 friend's name. 
 
 "She clung about my neck in her deshabille 
 and kissed me passionately and cried, and 
 swore by all that was holy that she would 
 neither betray me nor fail to join me a week 
 or two later; and she made into a bundle what 
 food she had ready-cooked in the house and 
 handed it to me for my flight. 
 
 " Being a natural carpenter, I had built for 
 myself a one-room shack, and a small shed 
 back of it on the edge of a narrow gully; in 
 which latter crude shelter I kept a small, wiry, 
 western horse for which I had several months 
 before traded with a wandering Indian. There 
 were no locks on the doors of any of the rude 
 buildings, and keeping in the shadows I crept 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 267 
 
 to my little place and had no difficulty in get 
 ting into it unnoticed. I packed up in a hurry 
 what I most needed to take with me; my small 
 store of money I always carried on my person. 
 Going quickly to the shed, I found the pony 
 had been well provided for during my absence, 
 as in so small a community all the horses are 
 individually known, and are remembered prac 
 tically if their masters fail to show up for 
 twenty-four hours. Holding my nag by the 
 nose so he couldn't whinny his delight at seeing 
 me again, I saddled him silently, adjusted my 
 packs to his back, before and behind the sad 
 dle, and led him into the narrow depression 
 behind the shed. I mounted him, and holding 
 him down to a walk till out of sight and hear 
 ing of my fellow-citizens, was soon off and 
 away along the back trail to the southeast and 
 Winnipeg. I hoped to make that important 
 city in a little over three days, and to dispose 
 of my mount there and pursue the rest of my 
 journey to the United States by rail, with St. 
 Paul as my temporary destination. Beyond that 
 I had not planned. 
 
 "The snow was not deep, as the spring was 
 nearly due, and my horse was half -wild and in 
 ured to long stages of traveling through his 
 former experience as an Indian mount. The 
 only danger I had really to guard against was 
 
268 ERIC MAROTTB 
 
 a pursuit by a posse from the settlement if 
 the body of the slain man were found the next 
 day; for although he had been a bully and a 
 4 periodical spreeV and was more than suspect 
 ed of cheating at cards, he, like every other 
 man, no matter how bad, had his friends, flat 
 terers and followers among his own kind, and 
 who would like nothing better than such a 
 chance at that most exciting of all huntings 
 the man-hunt with myself for their quarry. 
 
 "I stayed in the saddle and kept the pony 
 moving all that night and till the following 
 noon, then hid myself and my horse in the 
 heaviest thicket I could find until darkness 
 again descended on the wild. When, seeing 
 or hearing no signs of a pursuit, I remounted 
 and rode on throughout the night, my path 
 lighted by the whiteness of the snow. We slept 
 and rested half the next day, as before. Late 
 on the third night, when both the faithful beast 
 and myself were becoming fagged out with the 
 long, continuous strain (for we maintained a 
 quick gait), we came unexpectedly upon indica 
 tions of a new lumbering centre, and I stopped 
 to reconnoiter before proceeding further. I had 
 purposely avoided inhabited localities and the 
 Canadian mounted police, so that no news of 
 my passing could reach my probable pursuers. 
 (The first night out I had turned back on my 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 269 
 
 tracks and gone around in a circuitous, irregu 
 lar way to put them off my trail as best I 
 could.) 
 
 "Now, waiting till past midnight, I guided 
 my horse into a long ravine in order to avoid 
 the loggers' camp and get by it unseen. A 
 heavy fall of snow had already begun, the first 
 since I began my escape, with a fairly brisk 
 wind blowing; and I calculated that the new 
 snow would drift into this ravine and com 
 pletely cover my trail before sunrise. I was 
 riding along carefully, threading my way 
 through and around the obstructing bushes and 
 stones, and had covered about half the length 
 of the ravine, when my fear-sharpened ears 
 caught a low sound. Looking up to the left 
 in the direction from which it seemed to come, 
 I beheld a dark object, like a heavy man 
 wrapped in furs and looking right at me, dimly 
 outlined on the snow, at the edge of the hollow 
 and just above me. 
 
 "I awaited gun-in-hand the anticipated chal 
 lenge, but none was given. I slid to the ground 
 on the opposite side of my pony and edged 
 intermittently and with crafty caution up the 
 incline of the farther bank, screening myself, 
 as I proceeded, behind the wild shrubbery. Soon 
 I was nearly on a level with the dark object, 
 which, so far, had not moved. Suddenly it 
 
270 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 dropped to all fours and disappeared around 
 a large boulder nearly as tall as a man. I 
 breathed a great sigh of relief, for in that in 
 stant I comprehended that it was not a man at 
 all, but a good-sized bear. 
 
 "It was out of the question to fire at it 
 and thus awaken the whole camp, which could 
 not be far away, and I was fully content to 
 leave 'Mrs. Bruin ' alone if she would me; but 
 I crossed over to her side a couple of hundred 
 yards lower down the gulch, merely out of 
 curiosity as to her unaccountable instantane 
 ous disappearance. There was the boulder all 
 right, but no bear anywhere near it and no beau 
 tracks leading away from it. While I was cud 
 geling my befogged brains for a plausible so 
 lution of the strange phenomenon, I happened 
 to gaze away in another direction for a few 
 seconds. When I turned to scrutinize the big 
 boulder again, there was the bear once more 
 dropped down from nowhere! 
 
 "It was eerie and got on my nerves, so that 
 I gave voice to my astonishment and wonder 
 in an unrestrainable l Hell!' The bear heard 
 me and instantly took fright, and scampered 
 away towards the heavier growth of timber, 
 closely followed by two little cubs, which, also, 
 appeared suddenly out of clear space. I went 
 up to the heavy, perpendicular stone and 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 271 
 
 stepped all around it, examining it carefully, 
 but could perceive no aperture in it, nor in 
 the ground adjacent to it. In moving about it, 
 though, in the semi-luminosity of the reflect 
 ing snow, I undesignedly traced its outlines 
 with my hands; and at one point in the circle 
 of my investigation, I thought I felt the mass 
 stir to my touch. Pressing repeatedly on the 
 boulder at that point with both hands, I found 
 I could displace it readily; but it always rolled 
 back gently to its original position it was a 
 'rocking stone M 
 
 1 i Just then I heard a faint, distant, human 
 cry, and bolstering up the huge stone with a 
 broken tree-bough, I could discern a narrow 
 opening beneath it and leading into a natural 
 fissure in the rocky bank. I listened carefully, 
 and the sound was repeated; it came to me 
 like the smothered cry of an infant. 
 
 " Utterly dumbfounded by this new, further 
 mystifying phase of my adventure, I struck a 
 match and held it at arm's-length inside the 
 hole to see how the fissure ran. Satisfied that 
 it was not deep, I let myself down into it feet- 
 first. I found I was able to touch bottom with 
 out releasing my grasp on the ground above. 
 Encouraged by this, I let go and got down on 
 my hands and knees, and crawled along the 
 cave-like, covered, natural cut into the interior 
 
272 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 of the solid bank. Arriving at its innermost 
 recess, I groped about until my hands came in 
 contact with some woolen texture that seemed 
 to move. Striking another match, I nearly fell 
 over on beholding the astounding sight its light 
 revealed. Here, in this undiscoverable bear's 
 retreat, lying on its back and blinking at the 
 burning match, was a living baby! 
 
 "I could scarcely credit my own senses, but 
 had the presence of mind to gather up the in 
 fant tenderly and work my way out with it 
 into the air again. It had no outer wraps, but 
 was otherwise warmly dressed. However, I 
 protected it against the abrupt change in tem 
 perature, on passing from the bear's den to the 
 outside air, by covering it with the folds of 
 my heavy buffalo skin overcoat (these coats 
 were common then). I removed and threw away 
 the supporting bough and let the 'rocking- 
 stone' fall back into its normal position, where 
 it effectually concealed the bear's lair. 
 
 "I was in such a horrible quandary that I 
 almost forgot my own serious predicament. I 
 knew not which way to turn. If I left the 
 child there, it would die of exposure and starva 
 tion. If I sought the logging camp clearing 
 to return it to its probably agonized parents, 
 I would gravely endanger my own freedom 
 perhaps be caught and hanged by the posse 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 273 
 
 through the clew I must necessarily leave be 
 hind me there. If I took it with me on my 
 lone journey, how could I feed it at its tender 
 age? 
 
 "I wondered how long it could have lain 
 hidden in the bear's underground home and 
 how it had been kept from starving. Until, 
 in passing my hands over its face, I discov 
 ered what looked and felt like traces of milk 
 on the corners of its little mouth. I recollected 
 then a legend I once heard in my boyhood's 
 days of two afterwards famous characters hav 
 ing been once suckled by a she-wolf (Romulus 
 and Remus, I think they were called) I had 
 once seen a picture of them and the wolf in 
 some old book, too. Maybe this animal who 
 had adopted the baby was an escaped trained 
 bear maybe I was so wrought up I was ' nutty. ' 
 I finally gave up trying to 'dope it out.' But 
 there was the baby all unhurt and with no visi 
 ble symptoms of hunger about it, there was 
 no doubt of that much. This heartened me up 
 quite a bit, especially as the kid seemed to 
 trust me completely and clung to me, like T 
 was its own father, only crying a little and 
 softly, as though it had already cried so much 
 it could cry no more. I made up my mind, 
 since the babe couldn't talk and tell me where 
 it lived, and it looked strong and healthy, that 
 
274 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 it was safest and best to take it along with me, 
 at least as far as Winnipeg, where I could, no 
 doubt, arrange to have it properly cared for 
 till I had made my own ' get-away.' Later I 
 would think up some way to bring about its 
 triumphant return to its unexpectant parents. 
 I even mused happily and humorously over 
 their wide-eyed wonderment and bubbling grat 
 itude when it should be placed in their dis 
 tracted arms again. The whole affair would 
 beat a dime novel story ! what the English call 
 a 'penny-dreadful.' 
 
 "I wrapped the baby warmly in my blanket 
 and placed it on the saddle in front of me and 
 resumed with it my tedious journey. I occa 
 sionally stopped to give it water, and I allowed 
 it to munch a little dry bread crumbs as we 
 went along. When I stopped at noon of the 
 next day I knew, from our position, that we 
 could make Winnipeg during the second night 
 following. I overhauled my diminishing supply 
 of grub and found an unopened tin of extract 
 of beef (in the bundle I got from the woman). 
 I lighted a small fire among the trees, where 
 its smoke would not be seen, and boiling a tin- 
 cupful of water over it, dropped extract into 
 it a bit at a time till I had a mild beef tea, 
 which I hoped the kid could digest. It was 
 that or starve for it, anyhow. It seemed to 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 275 
 
 work all right, for the baby sipped it all grate 
 fully and grinned at me. So now I had solved 
 the puzzle of feeding it, and was overjoyed at 
 my own ingenuity. The weather grew milder, 
 with the tang of spring in the air, and the suc 
 ceeding twenty-four hours passed uneventfully. 
 "On the last stretch, nearing Winnipeg, I 
 spurred my weary nag to a livelier gate, as I 
 did not want to make the child sleep out in 
 the open another night. A fellow who knows 
 nothing about babies is more afraid of handling 
 them than of nursing rattle- snakes. It was 
 about ten o'clock at night when we finally 
 struck the city's outskirts (it was of only about 
 fifteen thousand population then), and within a 
 half hour after that I had put up the horse, 
 which was about ready to drop, at a small out- 
 of-the-way roadside tavern sporting a bar and 
 a barn. (The ordinances of many Canadian 
 cities require all licensed saloons to provide at 
 least twelve sleeping rooms and a stable for 
 wayfarers and their beasts of burden). I turned 
 over the baby, in apple pie order and sound 
 asleep, to the landlord's matronly wife and 
 helpmate, saying I would explain things in the 
 morning. They gave me plenty of hot coffee 
 (which I hadn't tasted in two days) and set out 
 such cold 'vittles' as they could scrape up at 
 that unconventional hour; but I was about all 
 
276 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 in; and leaving the baby in the motherly hands 
 of the old woman, I followed the landlord with 
 a candle to a small, coarsely furnished cubby 
 hole of a bed-room, and in five minutes forgot 
 the world and all my troubles in the care-for 
 getting, perfect sleep of physical and mental 
 exhaustion. I didn't even dream. 
 
 "I had requested 'mine host' not to call me 
 till ten o'clock, and I slept through the night 
 and early morning without awaking, until he 
 pounded on my door. They had saved some 
 breakfast in the stove-oven for me and added 
 more hot coffee and a pile of steaming * flap 
 jacks. ' Eested and refreshed, I plunged at once 
 into my preparations for taking up again the 
 thread of my enforced trip to the United 
 States. I gave my low-browed, cunning, 
 French-Canadian host a 'song and dance' about 
 taking the baby from its mother in the North 
 west to its grandmother in the States because 
 the mother felt she could not bring it up prop 
 erly so far from civilization; and I ensured his 
 silence in regard to my presence at his hotel 
 in a more practical way by hinting that my 
 horse was a stolen one and selling it to him 
 for less than half its value. The cute little 
 baby was turned up fresh and cooing; and as I 
 dared not stop here, on Canadian soil, long 
 enough to arrange for its return to its parents, 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 277 
 
 I decided to take it on with me to St. Paul 
 and try to locate its home by mail before ' ship 
 ping' it back there. 
 
 "I sent the proprietor's wife down on Main 
 street, which even then had begun to stand out 
 boldly in the impressiveness of its great width, 
 to buy an outside coat and such additional 
 1 duds' as she thought the baby needed for im 
 mediate wear; and in a few hours we were 
 aboard a day-coach on the train running south 
 east to St. Paul, some eight hundred miles away. 
 
 "From the first the baby had shown no fear 
 of me, but appeared to accept my presence and 
 caresses as a matter of course, simply eyeing 
 me wistfully and whimpering now and then. 
 It had probably spent all of its young life in 
 the woods, surrounded and worshiped by the 
 rough logging crew, and so was used to men's 
 faces and friendly attentions. I kept telling it 
 I was taking it to 'mama,' which word it 
 seemed to understand, although it couldn't talk, 
 but just gurgled incomprehensible things. 
 
 "It was a beautiful little boy, perfectly 
 formed with a dark French-Canadian face, but 
 of a higher type so far as its features were yet 
 shaped. We crossed the border without let or 
 hindrance, and I began to breath freely for 
 the first time. I relaxed in my seat and I'm 
 sure my eyes must have lost their hunted, shifty 
 
278 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 look. The south-bound cars were not crowded 
 like those going north with immigrants and 
 settlers, and I made a comfortable couch for 
 the baby by spreading out my blanket on the 
 reversed seat in front of me where I could 
 keep my eye on it, dozing off myself at inter 
 vals during our one night on the train, which 
 was a slow local carrying one through day- 
 coach. We arrived in St. Paul late on the sec 
 ond night and stopped at a cheap, second class 
 hotel down by the depot till noon of the next 
 day. In so large a city, with so many transients 
 and immigrant families and parts of families 
 passing through every day in the week, we 
 excited no suspicions and I was asked no em 
 barrassing questions as to my lone possession 
 of so young a child. 
 
 "Meanwhile I had sent a sealed note to my 
 'pal' by a newsboy I ran across at Third and 
 Wabasha streets, near the City Hall, telling 
 where we were. By good luck he happened to 
 be at home late that morning, and he came to 
 us at the hotel within the hour. Half an hour's 
 talk between us put him in possession of all 
 the facts in the case and of the present necessi 
 ties of my unusual position. Getting into a 
 livery rig belonging to a personal friend of his 
 who could keep his mouth shut, we were driven 
 to a point within a short walk of his little story- 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 279 
 
 and-a-half frame cottage. Dismissing the rig 
 there, we went the rest of the way on foot. 
 My 'pal' had married since I had last seen him, 
 and his young wife made a big fuss over the 
 kiddie and got * stuck on' him at sight; so his 
 troubles were over for a while. 
 
 i ' I had not shaved since my impromptu duel 
 in the Northern country, and now kept off the 
 street in the day time until my beard was pretty 
 well grown. It changed my appearance so 
 much I hardly recognized myself in the mirror. 
 After a few days, as I had received no word 
 from the woman who was to follow and meet 
 me here, I began to grow impatient, and my 
 fears to revive. 
 
 "Of course I was remorseful and despond 
 ent, but the fact that in our deadly encounter 
 the bully had drawn on me the instant he saw 
 me, coupled with his supposed previous attack 
 on me from ambush and my natural jealousy 
 of his attentions to the woman, kept me from 
 such conscious-stricken despair as might, other 
 wise, have overwhelmed me. I was not a 'bad 
 man' and this was my first serious affray; and 
 I tried to put aside my depression until my 
 sweetheart should come and fully inform me 
 of all that had occurred in the settlement after 
 I skipped out. I had been in St. Paul over a 
 week and began to despair of her, when one 
 
280 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Saturday afternoon she knocked at the door 
 of the cottage and asked for me. 
 
 "My friend's wife would not open the door 
 till I had surreptitiously identified her through 
 the shutters of the one upper window. When 
 I saw it was really she, I went down and let 
 her in myself; and the first glimpse I got ot" 
 her face sent a thrill of relief and hope through 
 my whole being; for its expression showed no 
 mark either of worry or of fear for my safety. 
 
 "From her account of the course affairs had 
 taken at the settlement subsequent to my flight, 
 it transpired that my vanquished enemy had 
 been found, early on the morning after he was 
 shot, by two timber men and brought home 
 badly injured, but not dead after all, and on 
 the day of her own departure he was considered 
 out of danger, although he was delirious most 
 of the time. In a lucid interval he had accused, 
 not me, but another man, of twice attempting 
 his murder because of a 'fancied' cheating by 
 him in a card game. (I learned some time 
 afterwards that it was this man, and not my 
 rival, who had shot at me in the dark, mistak 
 ing me for the bully). What the woman told 
 me lifted the double load of dread and anguish 
 off my heart, since I had neither killed a fellow- 
 man, nor was I being hunted as his assailant. 
 
 "I became almost gay, and did not sober 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 281 
 
 down again until my turn came to recount the 
 details of my escape and my adventure with 
 the baby and to explain my worry over the task 
 of discovering its parents and getting it back 
 into their hands promptly. This task was not 
 so easily performed then as it might be to-day. 
 I had only a general idea of the locality in 
 which I had found it enough, maybe, to have 
 enabled me, by retracing my steps, to relocate 
 it, but not clear enough to direct another search 
 er to it or to reach it by letter. And, besides, 
 if the infant belonged in that particular camp, 
 the log-drive had been started by this time, 
 and the camp and all its denizens would be gone 
 long before the babe, or even a courier, could 
 be gotten there. The ownership of the timber 
 land itself might give no safe clue, since much 
 of the tree-cutting in that wild country was 
 really done then by timber thieves. It was 
 impractical to take the child along on a per 
 sonally-conducted search, and the wisest course 
 seemed to be to mail a letter giving all known 
 particulars of the case to the police authorities 
 at Winnipeg and depend upon them to institute 
 further necessary inquiries and searches. 
 
 "But this proceeding would necessitate my 
 explaining a whole lot of things I didn't want 
 raked up as to why I had not taken the child 
 to the nearest camp at once, or at least left it 
 
282 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 in official hands at Winnipeg; how I came to 
 be in that ravine in the middle of a stormy 
 night when I could have had shelter for the 
 asking, etc. I would have gone back myself in 
 the long run, but the woman on whose account 
 I had got mixed up in my shooting scrape with 
 the bully, would not hear of it, protesting that 
 I should be deserting her and that she knew I 
 would never come back to her if I went. Al 
 ready she was jealous of the kid and disliked to 
 see me fondle it. You know, mister, you can't 
 reason with a woman like you can with a man ; 
 
 'For if she will she will, you may depend on't, 
 And if she won't she won't, and there's an end on't'; 
 
 as some old poet fellow once said. 
 
 "Well, nothing at all was done about the 
 matter for another week or so, and I com 
 menced to look about the town for some work 
 to do, as I wanted to marry the woman. To 
 be sure, I knew nothing about her past life or 
 habits, but in the frontier towns in such sur 
 roundings as those in which I had first met 
 her, questions are seldom asked or answered in 
 regard to one's previous degree of servitude, 
 for fear of counter questions. She had me go 
 ing, all right, with her flattery and 'goo-goo 
 eyes,' and that was enough for a young rough 
 neck like me. One thing about her I had no 
 ticed, and commented on too, however that 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 283 
 
 she always refused beer or liquor of any kind. 
 I once asked her in a joking way, 'how long 
 she had been on the water wagon/ and was 
 startled by her sudden, emotional reply that, 
 'if I ever saw her drinking once I'd never want 
 to see her again.' I did not take her outburst 
 seriously at the moment, but it came back to 
 me laden with meaning not long afterwards. 
 
 "Along in the third week after the coming 
 of the woman to the cottage she went down 
 town one morning and did not return to sup 
 per, nor during the whole night. As she had a 
 few old acquaintances of her own in both St. 
 Paul and Minneapolis, we concluded she had 
 stopped over night on a visit to some one of 
 them, although she had taken nothing but her 
 usual hand-bag along with her. But when she 
 still did not come back after two days had 
 passed by, I became really alarmed, as I was 
 still in love with her, and started looking for 
 her in the retail business portion of the city, 
 where the most street cars stopped and the 
 largest number of people could be met in the 
 shortest time. Next day I went to Minneapolis, 
 also, and patrolled all the principal down-town 
 streets there between the river and Ninth street. 
 Here I ran across a friend of my 'pal's' who 
 had been introduced to her at our cottage, and 
 he volunteered the information that he was 
 
284 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 pretty sure lie had seen her near the Nicollet 
 Hotel, then the leading hostelry of the city 
 just before the then new West Hotel was 
 erected. 
 
 "So I stayed over in Minneapolis that night 
 and continued next morning my walking and 
 watching with an increasing suspicion of some 
 thing being wrong with her. At about seven 
 o'clock that evening my vigilance was reward 
 ed by my catching sight of her back as she 
 was entering the stairway of a doubtful-looking 
 transient rooming, or bed-house, on Washing 
 ton avenue a little ways south of Nicollet ave 
 nue. 
 
 "I suppose you know the locality, sir(f) 
 No? Well, it's not a very savory one even 
 now, but then it was a pretty bum neighbor 
 hood, I can tell you. 
 
 "I ran after her, and reached the entrance 
 of the bed-house so promptly that I saw her 
 pass from the head of its street stairs to a room 
 half way down the hall. Without hesitation, 
 I went up and knocked at her door. She opened 
 it, looked at me in a dazed way and then, ap 
 pearing to recognize me suddenly, threw her 
 arms around my neck, crying out in a maudlin 
 voice: 'Blesh hish little heart! Did he come to 
 shee hish mommerT She was dead drunk! 
 
 "I was too thunderstruck and mortified to 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 285 
 
 answer at once, and all my pent-up anxiety for 
 her began to turn to loathing. She motioned 
 me to a chair at the window lighted by a dirty 
 air-shaft, and proceeded, unabashed, to remove 
 her skirt and shirt-waist, tearing the latter in 
 her drunken awkwardness. Before I realized 
 what she was doing, she had dropped the single, 
 soiled, cotton underskirt she wore, to the floor 
 and unhooked her corset and thrown it aside. 
 She seemed to have forgotten entirely my pres 
 ence in the room as she fell heavily on the bed 
 and rolled over on her face in the instantaneous 
 sleep of intoxication. The spell of my fasci 
 nated disgust then broke, and, as she moved her 
 body into an easier position, I tossed over her 
 the faded ' comfort ' lying at the foot of the bed. 
 She now lay flat on her back, with her mouth 
 open and exhaling the fetid carbonic oxide of 
 the common whiskey sot. A half emptied pint 
 bottle of cheap whiskey lay under her pillow, 
 and her lips were cracked and blackened, as if 
 burnt by the liquor she had drunk or by some 
 narcotic, poisonous 'dope.' 
 
 ' 1 1 stood looking at her a few minutes, trying 
 to concentrate my thoughts and decide upon 
 some course of action; then I turned down low 
 the single gas jet, threw open the window, and 
 left the room to consult the frowsy, flat-breast 
 ed, landlady of the place. That beldame, when 
 
286 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 she got it through her 'nut' that I was willing 
 to become responsible for the payment of the 
 woman's room rent, hailed me as her deliverer, 
 but was loud in her protestations of the dam 
 age that was being done to her 'respectable 
 house' by my 'lady friend's' shameless conduct 
 in coming home in a disheveled and intoxicated 
 condition for the past three nights and bringing 
 strange men to drink in her room with her at 
 all hours. 
 
 "Say; it was fierce! It broke me all up! 
 I shut the old hag up by paying her a week's 
 rent in advance for the miserable room, and 
 ordered her not to let the woman go out again 
 until I gave her permission. She took my or 
 ders as though I were the woman 's kept lover 
 her 'strong-arm' partner. I went out to a 
 laborers' restaurant in the same block and 
 bought a two-dollar book of coupon meal tickets 
 and left them at the 'hotel,' so the landlady 
 could use them to send out for food for the 
 woman, saying I would look in again next day. 
 
 "My dreams of love were completely shat 
 tered, but I could not decently desert my broken 
 idol without stopping to pick up the pieces. 
 What she had once said to me so vehemently 
 about 'my never wanting to see her again if I 
 once saw her drink,' now came back to me 
 forcefully; yet I wanted to give her at least 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 287 
 
 a chance to explain in mitigation of her con 
 duct and what led her into it. I had the con 
 scientious feeling, too, that my responsibility 
 to her could not end until I had sobered her up 
 and left her able to take care of herself and 
 keep out of the lock-up. Then I would take 
 myself off, and out of her life forever. 
 
 ' ' I passed a restless night, going back there 
 at noon the next day. Finding her still sleep 
 ing, I returned again at evening, but, on the 
 landlady's assertion that she knew better how 
 to handle her than I did and her frank admis 
 sion that she was in no shape to be seen, I still 
 further deferred my self -promised talk with her. 
 I had dropped a postal card to the cottage at 
 St. Paul telling my friends I was detained in 
 Minneapolis unexpectedly and they need feel 
 no uneasiness over my continued absence for 
 another day or two; but purposely withheld 
 from them any news of my deplorable discov 
 eries about the woman. Not till three o'clock 
 of the second afternoon did I get an opportunity 
 of seeing and conversing with that wretched 
 derelict, my former lover. 
 
 "The atmosphere of the mean, diminutive, 
 court bed-room she occupied, was stale and 
 musty, there was a dirty tray of half -consumed 
 food on the bureau, the bed had not been re 
 made, and a general air of wretchedness per- 
 
288 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 vaded the whole room. The woman herself 
 looked up inquiringly at me upon my entrance, 
 but said nothing. An awkward silence was at 
 length broken by my polite inquiries as to her 
 physical well-being, and our conversation once 
 begun, we talked on for an hour. 
 
 "Of her own notion she told me sufficient 
 of her personal history to acquaint me with 
 the fact that she was subject to intermittent 
 relapses into her present degree of irresponsi 
 bility; and while I experienced some compassion 
 for one who evidently had not the will-power 
 to resist such appetites, I was not a fool; and 
 I informed her flatly that if she did not give 
 up such degrading habits at once and perma 
 nently, I should quit her altogether. 
 
 i ' She pleaded with me at first, but finding me 
 determined and obdurate in my decision, grew 
 angry, and we quarreled. When I saw that she 
 was becoming hysterical I excused myself and 
 left her unceremoniously. She pursued me to 
 the head of the stairs with incoherent screams 
 and ribald oaths, calling me a fugitive from 
 justice a murderer, and swearing she would 
 'get even' with me. 
 
 "Outside on the street I drew breath more 
 freely, congratulating myself on having found 
 her out in time. It is a mercy that such women 
 fail to appreciate the repelling force of their 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 289 
 
 depravity upon the ordinary person of the op 
 posite sex that their illogical minds become 
 deadened to the repulsiveness of their own per 
 sons, and they do not realize the awfulness of 
 their self-inflicted punishment. 
 
 "When I got back to St. Paul I could see 
 nothing to be gained by relating my sad ex 
 perience to my friends at the little cottage 
 home, and I shrank, with untutored decency and 
 wounded pride, from deliberately injuring her 
 standing with them by assailing her moral char 
 acter. All I desired was to be quit of her for 
 ever, and I did not think she would have the 
 nerve to come back to the cottage after what 
 had passed between us. That showed I did not 
 understand women ! I obtained temporary em 
 ployment in a St. Paul warehouse, through the 
 intercession of my friend while I was away, and 
 things quieted down for a week. Then the un 
 expected again happened. 
 
 "I remember it was on another Saturday 
 evening that as I approached the cottage my 
 friend and his wife appeared at the door with 
 horror and consternation written on their faces, 
 and beckoned me to hurry towards them. The 
 wife informed me, in tearful, excited words that 
 the woman had returned to the cottage that 
 morning, a little after I had departed for my 
 work at the warehouse, and, volunteering some 
 
290 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 plausible explanation of her long absence, had 
 gone to her former bed-room to lie down. Later 
 in the day she had helped to prepare luncheon, 
 and then offered to watch the child, who was 
 delighted to see her again in spite of her pre 
 vious indifference to him, while her hostess 
 went down-town on a short shopping tour, from 
 which she had been kept before by the necessity 
 of looking after the child. When she the host 
 ess, returned, two hours afterwards, the woman 
 was gone, bag and baggage, and the child could 
 not be found. She was l frightened to death!' 
 she said, and ran about the near-by vicinity 
 asking all her neighbors if they had seen either 
 of the missing ones. Finally a small boy in 
 the block remembered he had observed a cab 
 drive up to the cottage and take on a lady and 
 child with baggage, as if for a journey. 
 
 "Immediately it flashed upon me that this 
 was the woman 's method of * getting even with 
 me' for my righteous desertion of her, which 
 she had evidently taken bitterly to heart. Like 
 a woman, she took pleasure in a double revenge, 
 hoping by her unique plan to injure both my 
 self and the child. Supper was forgotten and 
 we all three set out at once for the different 
 railway stations, to try and head her off in her 
 cruel design. I stopped on my way at the cen 
 tral police station and enlisted municipal aid. 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 291 
 
 For two days and nights we did little else but 
 hunt for the absentees, but our efforts were 
 unrewarded by even a clew to them. I was 
 deeply grieved as well as sadly worried, because 
 I had learned to love the boy, and the thought 
 that now I could not return him to his father 
 and mother nearly made me ill. 
 
 "At the end of the week the police depart 
 ment of St. Paul reported to us that the chief 
 of police of Milwaukee had just written saying 
 that a woman and baby answering to the de 
 scription wired him from St. Paul, had been 
 seen in his city and he was now trying to locate 
 them definitely. I had had to give up my job 
 anyhow, as I was no good to any one with this 
 depressing and upsetting burden on my mind, 
 and now I packed up and took the first train 
 for the German City by the Lake. 
 
 "When I got there the police had nothing 
 further to report in regard to the kidnaper and 
 her victim, and for several days I joined their 
 local sleuths in their chase. Those were the 
 bitterest hours of my life, bitter as that life 
 has been, for the most part, since. 
 
 4 ' One bright morning as I was walking alone 
 and dejected on Grand avenue a couple of blocks 
 west of the old Plankinton House, I was at 
 tracted to a crowd gathering on the sidewalk 
 near the Sixth avenue intersection and heard 
 
292 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 the gong of a hurrying police-patrol wagon. 
 Skirting the edge of the crowd, I asked what 
 the trouble was, and learned that a woman had 
 fainted and was lying there on the walk. Push 
 ing through the mob as the officers parted it, 
 I got close up to the prostrate figure. I reeled 
 with surprise and shock it was the form of 
 the woman I sought. A passing doctor was 
 working over her, and as he straightened up 
 from his stooping position I stepped forward 
 tremulously, saying I knew the patient and 
 asking him for the result of his examination. 
 Laconically, he answered, * Instantaneous death 
 from heart disease; probable immediate cause, 
 dissipation. Better have her removed to an 
 undertaker's. It's all over!' 
 
 "So, those lips from which, alone, I could 
 hope to learn the whereabouts of the child or 
 its fate, were sealed forever without imparting 
 their secret. This was ' getting even' with a 
 vengeance beyond the woman's boldest calcula 
 tions. The body was taken to an undertaking 
 establishment by the police, and I accompanied 
 it. Knowing no address of any relative of the 
 dead woman, I myself arranged to have her 
 buried in a small cemetery in Milwaukee, and 
 ordered a simple headstone with just her name 
 and the date of her decease on it, to be set up 
 over the grave. I took receipts from the under- 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 293 
 
 taker, the monument house and the cemetery 
 company in my own name, leaving the latter 
 concern my St. Paul friends' address, so I could 
 turn over the receipts to anyone who might la 
 ter come forward and claim her body. I have 
 them yet. About forty dollars in money was 
 found in her clothes, and this I used towards 
 defraying the expense of her burial. 
 
 ' i The search for the child was now taken 
 up again with additional incentive and renewed 
 energy; advertisements were inserted in all of 
 the city's daily papers offering one hundred 
 dollars reward for information leading to the 
 discovery of the baby, living or dead; asylums 
 and hospitals were thoroughly searched, and a 
 house to house canvass made. It was all use 
 less. At last, totally discouraged and nearly 
 penniless, I gave up all present hopes of finding 
 the poor baby, and dreading to go back to the 
 scene of my misfortune in St. Paul, came on to 
 Chicago to drink and forget! 
 
 "Since that time I have wandered through 
 all the larger American cities, drifting aimlessly 
 from place to place sometimes flush of money, 
 more often as you see me now. But though 
 subconsciously I have always been on the look 
 out for the face of the lost baby as I last saw 
 and remembered it, I have never, to this day, 
 seen or heard of the child again. I do not 
 
294 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 believe the woman could have had the nerve, 
 or sufficient hatred, to make away with the 
 infant; nor, bad as she was, do I think she was 
 cruel enough to have disposed of it where it 
 would be harshly treated, simply out of spite 
 for me; but I can only hope, and try to per 
 suade myself, that it fell into good hands. It is 
 the one pure dream of my worthless life that 
 in some away, before I die, I may be assured of 
 its being alive and that its existence has not 
 been a wicked or unhappy one. Then, if the 
 still greater boon of bringing the boy, now 
 grown to manhood, together with his own, real 
 parents again, might be granted me, I could 
 die self-absolved and content/* 
 
 It was quite late when his vis a vis at the 
 restaurant table concluded, in a breaking voice, 
 his singular story. And John, who was the 
 more strongly moved by it through his long 
 brooding over his own unraveled early history, 
 suggested that they postpone consideration of 
 the arrangements he intended making for his 
 assistance till another meeting. He took the 
 man back to his lodgings and went his own 
 homeward way in a thoughtful and speculative 
 mood. Several days after this he secured him 
 a position as night watchman in the machine 
 shops of his own concern. He found him to be 
 both loyal and thankful, attending to his few 
 
THE BUM'S LONG TALE 295 
 
 duties promptly and faithfully, and felt well 
 repaid for his efforts in helping him to make a 
 man of himself. He did this not knowing, how 
 ever, that in taking this outcast in he " enter 
 tained an angel unawares. " 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 OSTRACISED 
 
 'Laugh and the world laughs with you; 
 Weep, and you weep alone." 
 
 URING the four years of John's 
 absence at Yale Gretchen re 
 mained in much the same social 
 circles as before. She had not 
 sought entrance into new and 
 more fashionable "crowds" of young people, 
 she being satisfied with the old ones. She 
 entered no girls' "finishing school" or college 
 after her graduation from the i i Central High, ' ' 
 and so was not affected by the caddishness of 
 the sororities nor "taken up" by eastern de 
 butantes and taught the vulgar power of mon 
 eyed arrogance in society. When John came 
 home to stay, however, and especially after he 
 became established in business, she accepted 
 invitations into larger and more exclusive fields 
 of social activity, as John was there to escort 
 her; and her invitations were generally extend 
 ed to include him as her nearest man friend. 
 
 Both Mr. Hummelmueller and Stubbs Senior 
 had grown in prosperity and business impor 
 tance with the passing years. The brewery of 
 
 296 
 
OSTRACISED 297 
 
 the former had now an extensive shipping and 
 export trade, as well as a greatly increased 
 local output; while Stubbs Senior had outgrown 
 his " independent" market and become inter 
 ested in a large beef and pork packing plant 
 at the Chicago Union Stock Yards. 
 
 Brewers and pork packers, who had been 
 rather " tabooed " as men of low and revolting 
 occupations, in local society in Chicago 's earlier 
 palmy days of more Puritanical selection; were 
 now become the socially-elect as heads of great 
 corporations; and so the Hummelmuellers and 
 Stubbses and their ilk, who once performed 
 their own manual labor and asked social favors 
 of no one, were beginning to meet at many of 
 the functions of the most exclusive "sets" of 
 the city. 
 
 Most of the * i old families ' ' which originally 
 gave tone to the close-in boulevards and avenues 
 of the "West Side" of Chicago (notably Ash 
 land and Washington boulevards), had by this 
 time removed to the "South" or "North Side," 
 or even into suburban "country homes" along 
 the "North Shore" of Lake Michigan, and, to 
 some extent, into the farther suburbs to the 
 west of the city to avoid the encroachments of 
 the ever-prolific poor. The Hummelmuellers 
 and a few others whose business places were 
 still located on the West side, held to their old 
 
298 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 homesteads tenaciously (as a few of them do 
 even to this day). But the Stubbses, now doing 
 business at the Union Stock Yards, had moved 
 into a brand-new Queen Anne residence in the 
 Kenwood district (still the finest home district 
 of the South side). Here young Bill Stubbs 
 became a more insufferable snob than ever, and 
 was, perhaps, more highly appreciated by his 
 new associates, who took him seriously for what 
 he pretended to be, than ever he had been by 
 his former youthful companions, who knew him 
 for what he was. 
 
 Thus John and Gretchen were frequently in 
 vited to formal dinners and dances and ' ' dinner- 
 dances " in the South and North side avenues; 
 and there they met occasionally young Stubbs. 
 
 That more exclusive form of social prefer 
 ence evidenced by private dinners and luncheons 
 and teas where plates are laid for scarcely a 
 score at most, had not yet come into vogue in 
 Chicago, and the "sets" were much fewer and 
 larger than now. Also, it was then considered 
 good form for the entire family to sit out on 
 the front steps in late afternoon and evening, 
 in pleasant weather, receiving their callers there 
 on bright carpets and cushions, instead of hid 
 ing away like sacred little " popes " upon whom 
 it is not meet for the rabble to look, as is con 
 sidered en regie there today. Viewing the two 
 

OSTRACISED 299 
 
 customs comparatively and with an unpreju- 
 dicial mind, one is prompted to ask, "What's 
 the difference? " 
 
 At these gatherings, as elsewhere, John had 
 always been received and treated as a social 
 equal, and even made much of as a rising young 
 Yale graduate ; but in the summer of the second 
 year after his home-coming he began to notice 
 a slight coldness and an increasing aloofness 
 towards himself on the part of several " social 
 lights" of more or less brilliancy, and the num 
 ber of his invitations out grew less. 
 
 Abnormally sensitive to social criticism by 
 reason of the melancholy induced in him by his 
 unhappy racial situation, he became at first in 
 dignant over the implied ostracism; then some 
 what distant and retiring in public. And, un 
 der all his reserve, he suffered keenly from this 
 adverse regarding of him, which in many cases 
 he naturally ascribed to those who did not 
 really regard him adversely. One cannot al 
 ways discriminate clearly between ill-will and 
 ill-breeding. He said nothing to Gretchen about 
 this new cross that was being laid upon his 
 young shoulders; but she, herself, soon began 
 to note the frequency with which her social 
 solicitations from others, verbal or written, 
 failed to include John; and she asked him if he 
 could imagine a reason for it. Then he told 
 
300 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 her what he thought ; namely, that someone must 
 be spreading insinuating reports about him in 
 regard to his supposed racial connections. 
 
 She was deeply pained and resentful for him 
 and proposed to decline all future requests for 
 her presence which could be construed as pur 
 posely omitting him; but he pointed out to her 
 the untenableness and the injustice to herself 
 of such a stand, and induced her to do nothing 
 about it for the time being. Meanwhile, by dis 
 creet queries and clever surmises, he undertook 
 to find out just what was being gossiped abouf 
 him and to trace it back to its original source 
 of promulgation. 
 
 Eventually, he met, at one of the few gentle 
 men's clubs yet existing on the "West Side" of 
 Chicago, a young wholesale sheet-iron man who 
 was under considerable business obligations to 
 him, and who took him confidentially aside and 
 informed him that it had come to his personal 
 knowledge that, about three months before, a 
 Mr. William Stubbs who was much affected by 
 the faster sets of young, unmarried people, had 
 deliberately bruited abroad a story to the effect 
 that he, John Manning, was "a bastard found 
 ling, the illegitimate Negro son of a low white 
 woman," and claimed he had the evidence to 
 prove it. 
 
 Too polished and circumspect now to bully 
 
OSTRACISED 301 
 
 John in his old, uncouth, open way, and more 
 than ever aware of the latter 's mental, moral 
 and physical superiority over himself, this was, 
 then, the underhanded mode of Bill Stubbs' 
 new vicious, but covert, social assault on him 
 in his pusillanimous desire of gratifying his 
 personal, ancient spite and envy. And the pity 
 of it was that there seemed no help for it no 
 way of openly disputing or disproving Stubbs' 
 cruel assertions without widening the very 
 publicity that, for Gretchen's sake, must be 
 avoided. He could, without a doubt, call Stubbs 
 to account, and privately punch his nose if Ije 
 refused to retract his statements; but the mis 
 chief was already done, and, beyond that fact, 
 if he really was a Negro, he had no desire to 
 disown his race by a cowardly essay to foist 
 himself upon the social life of a higher race 
 through the fawning enactment of a lie. 
 
 That Stubbs should go so far in his low vin- 
 dictiveness as to term him a " bastard" made 
 John's blood boil in silent rage, and filled his 
 heart with a murderous longing for revenge 
 upon Stubbs that would have disturbed that 
 worthy butcher's son mightily had he suspected 
 its menace to his own sweet carcass. For 
 neither Jim nor Jemima had ever breathed a 
 word to John, or anyone else, of the damning 
 
302 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 note found enclosed in the gold locket he wore 
 the night he was left at their door. 
 
 Bill Stubbs, the implacable, like most would- 
 be villains, overshot his mark, in spite of all 
 his cunning, in asserting his ability to prove 
 just who John was ; for it soon dawned on his 
 victim's mind that, as a bare possibility, Stubbs 
 might accidentally have stumbled upon some 
 genuine, traceable clew to the real history of 
 his birth, so long a sealed book to him. He 
 determined to put this hypothesis to the test. 
 If it turned out to be well-founded and Stubbs ' 
 story to be true, why, the latter ? s attack upon 
 his personality would have proved a blessing 
 in disguise, and, while not exactly a boomerang 
 to Stubbs himself, it would have served John in 
 a way so near to his heart as almost to make 
 him forget and forgive the wrong intended. 
 
 This set John to thinking out how to acquire 
 the details of the so-claimed, special informa 
 tion in the easiest, surest and most non-com- 
 mital way. In the course of a few days, he had 
 elaborated a plan and began to carry it out. At 
 tending such social affairs as still included him 
 among their invited guests, and mixing with the 
 other participants nonchalantly, as though noth 
 ing had occurred to distress him, he watched 
 Stubbs closely wherever he ran across him, to 
 ascertain who were his closest intimates, and so 
 

 OSTRACISED 303 
 
 most likely to be his confidants in his trouble- 
 brewing for anyone he might happen to dis 
 like. From among these he picked out a hot- 
 tempered, bibulous youth who belonged to the 
 same club as did Stubbs himself the club in 
 which he had been told by the iron-monger of 
 Stubbs ' scandalous utterances. Then he con 
 spired with this friend to have the latter start 
 a discussion at the club with Stubbs' bibulous 
 satellite some night when all three of them 
 were there and the "satellite" was following a 
 "wobbly" orbit. In this discussion John's 
 friend was to take exception to Stubbs' dis 
 semination of the scandal, and offer to bet the 
 bibulous one a hundred dollars that Stubbs' 
 story about John's birth and parentage, was 
 either a canard or a deliberate, premeditated 
 lie, trusting to the cupidity of the youth's 
 prompting him to take the whole matter direct 
 to Stubbs himself. This would compel that 
 vain-glorious cad either to back up his rash as 
 sertions with proof positive or to let his chum in 
 for the loss of his bet. Another member of the 
 club who was friendly to John, had volunteered 
 to be idling within ear-shot and to "butt in" 
 at the psychological moment, so that John 
 might secure at least two witnesses to the re 
 sult of the manoeuvre. John gladly provided 
 the money to cover the proposed wager, as he 
 
304 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 was perfectly willing to lose that amount if 
 Stubbs' proofs threw any real light upon this, 
 the greatest question of his life. 
 
 The propitious occasion finally came, and 
 the simple ruse worked like a charm, John's 
 chief coadjutor in the scheme laying just enough 
 stress upon his insinuations that Stubbs had 
 lied, to insure its prompt repetition verbatim to 
 Stubbs, with the probable effects of enraging 
 that doughty destroyer of character into nam 
 ing his informant, if any, in justification of his 
 dirty tactics. 
 
 Stubbs at first stood on his dignity and, 
 while he swore he had plenty of evidence to 
 prove all he had stated about John, declined to 
 "lower himself " to the necessity of proving 
 anything to anybody who " doubted his word 
 as a gentleman/' Howbeit, this did not suit 
 his chum, who angrily reminded him that un 
 less he did prove his case, the former stood to 
 lose not only his own one hundred dollars but 
 the other hundred he hoped to win. The up 
 shot of the whole matter was that Stubbs, 
 driven into a corner, reluctantly agreed to bring 
 to the club-rooms on the succeeding evening a 
 certain wholesale delivery wagon driver for his 
 father's stock-yards concern. This man, he 
 claimed, was the identical person who brought 
 John to "Goose Island" and left him at the 
 
OSTRACISED 305 
 
 Mannings' cottage. The two parties to the 
 wager put the two hundred dollars, by mutual 
 consent, in an envelope and deposited it in the 
 club's safe. Then they had a " night-cap " all 
 around and dispersed. 
 
 After hearing his friend's report next morn 
 ing, John passed a restless day, torn between 
 hopes and misgivings, and that night he lay 
 awake in the mental anguish of one who feels 
 the crisis of his existence approaching and fears 
 its revelations. His foster-parents were un 
 aware of any measures he had adopted to open 
 up the secret of his past. John did not want 
 to disturb their honestly-won happiness and 
 equanimity with doubts and fears of his own 
 which might, after all, turn out groundless. To 
 them, though not to him, the question of his 
 birth had long been a closed incident, and the 
 reopening of which must necessarily wound 
 their loving hearts now so strongly anchored in 
 the belief of their sole right to his filial affec 
 tions. Gretchen knew, in a general way, that 
 inquiries were on foot, but trusted John to dis 
 close to her in his own chosen time whatever it 
 was right for her to know of his discoveries. 
 
 Morning dawned on a gray November sky, 
 adding its outward gloom to the inward op 
 pression that filled John now. He steeled his 
 heart to meet undaunted whatever shock of dis- 
 
306 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 closure must come with the unveiling of the 
 past, and went resolutely to his office duties. 
 At about eleven-thirty, when the suspense had 
 become almost unendurable, his trusty co-con 
 spirators called for him and the trio proceeded 
 to a high-class down-town restaurant and cater 
 ing establishment on Adams street, opposite the 
 north front of the main post office. (This estab 
 lishment, in those days the pride of the city, 
 has long since been forgotten, its glory de 
 parted, its owner dead, and its specially con 
 structed home demolished to* make way for a 
 sky-scraper.) Here they secured a table in one 
 of its smaller private dining rooms upstairs. 
 After their luncheon had been served and des 
 patched, they dismissed the waiter with a lib 
 eral tip, and the momentous recital to John of 
 the happenings and divulgings at the prear 
 ranged meeting at the club on the night before 
 was begun. John watched the face of the 
 speaker with magnetized closeness and growing 
 emotion. 
 
 It appeared from it that Bill Stubbs had 
 brought his informant to the club as agreed. 
 This informant was a rough-looking customer 
 with nervous eyes. He was obviously embar 
 rassed by his unusual surroundings in the club- 
 rooms and seemed to suspect that some trap was 
 being set for him, though assured by Stubbs 
 
OSTRACISED 307 
 
 that there was no intention on the part of any 
 one to prosecute him for his connection with 
 that affair of so many years ago. A couple of 
 rounds of drinks revived his spirits and re 
 moved his suspicions, and after a third his 
 tongue loosened and he even grew confidentially 
 loquacious. Also, he produced old letters and 
 memoranda and the names and addresses of 
 witnesses still living in Chicago, which, when 
 verified, would readily and quickly confirm and 
 corroborate him in all his assertions and prove 
 the truth of his informal deposition. 
 
 The gist of his story was, that some twenty- 
 one years before, he had found himself stranded 
 in Milwaukee, where he had been discharged 
 from his position on a lake passenger boat, for 
 drunkenness. That he could get no work there 
 and was ' ' stony-broke " reduced, in fact, to 
 foraging on the free lunch counters of the beer 
 saloons so numerous in that German-speaking 
 burg, and depending upon an occasional dime 
 begged or wheedled from some passer-by for a 
 bed in a * hobo's' lodging-house. That, one day, 
 as he sat loafing in his worn-out clothes on a 
 hard bench in Juneau Park on the lake front, 
 looking from its elevation down over the rail 
 way tracks to the boats loading and unloading 
 at the piers, and speculating idly upon their 
 probable destinations and the chances of stow- 
 
308 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 ing himself away on one of them in the hope 
 of being allowed to work his passage to some 
 other, more hospitable city; a woman carrying 
 a baby had come along and seated herself on 
 the same bench, with a furtive glance at his 
 forlorn appearance and negligent attitude. 
 
 She had spoken to him casually, and, pre 
 tending to be philanthropically inclined, en 
 couraged him to unfold to her sympathetic ear 
 his hard-luck story. At its conclusion she gave 
 him a half-dollar, abstracting it from her purse 
 ostentatiously and holding the purse open so 
 that he could not fail to see that it was well 
 lined with bills. 
 
 She soon said " good-bye" and started to 
 walk away, but, curving back as if struck by 
 a sudden idea, asked him if he would under 
 take a delicate mission if he were well paid for 
 it. Being about desperate, anyway, and grate 
 fully disposed towards her for her friendly 
 gift the glimpse she had given him of the thick 
 wad of bills in her pocketbook acting, too, as a 
 subjective lure to him he had unhesitatingly 
 answered in the affirmative. 
 
 Reseating herself close to him and lowering 
 her voice, she had then told him, with an air of 
 great mystery, that the baby she carried was a 
 Negro; the fruit of a guilty liason of her own 
 sister's, a woman of the middle classes, and 
 
OSTRACISED 309 
 
 who had been betrayed by the father of the 
 child, and then deserted by him when she told 
 him she was enceinte. That the poor girl had 
 given up all hopes of returning to her father 's 
 house in another Wisconsin City, as her family 
 had disowned her on discovering her condition 
 and, starving and in despair of ever being 
 able to hold up her head again, had become a 
 " woman of the town." Hence she could no 
 longer keep the child with her, and had made 
 a passionate appeal by letter to her oldest sis 
 ter to come and take it away. That she, who 
 addressed him, was the oldest sister, and that, 
 shamed by the coldness and uncharitable bitter 
 ness of the rest of the family, she had in a 
 round-about way hunted up her erring youngest 
 sister and promised her she would dispose of 
 the unfortunate child as quietly and as advan 
 tageously to the infant itself as possible. 
 
 But nobody in Milwaukee seemed to want 
 it, and her proposition to him now was to give 
 him twenty-five dollars if he would take the 
 baby to Chicago to get rid of it beyond trace 
 or recovery in some out-of-the-way part of its 
 less-known purlieus. He must not let it come 
 to any harm while in his possession and must 
 leave it neither at any public institution, nor at 
 any home where he had reason to believe, from 
 its general aspect, that the baby would be badly 
 
310 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 treated if taken in and kept as she wished it 
 no harm, it being her own sister's child. 
 
 He had hesitated a little over accepting this 
 commission as the hired instrument of the fate 
 of a human being, with a superstitious dread of 
 crossing the lines of predestination; but the 
 11 misplacing " of a "little nigger " more or less 
 seemed less inculpating than intentionally los 
 ing a real white baby. Mistaking the cause of 
 his hesitation, she hastened to add that the baby 
 was so light in color it would readily pass for 
 a white child, and he wouldn't be questioned 
 on the short ride between Milwaukee and Chi 
 cago, and that, as she trusted him to carry out 
 his part of the "contract," he must trust her 
 as to the truth of her statement of the facts in 
 the case. 
 
 Before he could formulate his objections she 
 had thrust five five-dollar bills into his hand 
 and held the baby out to him; and he had ac 
 cepted both mechanically, as she walked off and 
 left him to his own resources. Going to the 
 south end of the park, he had boarded the first 
 train out on the Chicago and Northwestern Rail 
 way. He had scarcely glanced at the child while 
 in Milwaukee, but before his train entered Chi 
 cago he had already become unconsciously at 
 tached to it (it seemed to prefer him to the 
 woman who had so carelessly given it up, and 
 
OSTRACISED 311 
 
 to a perfect stranger), touched by its trustful 
 clinging to him, and his heart revolted against 
 the thought of making it the innocent victim 
 of the woman's cold-blooded bargain with him. 
 She had spoken without emotion, and he did 
 not half believe her story of the child's paren 
 tage; but he was in no position to help himself, 
 as he could not find her again if he wanted to; 
 and he reasoned that if he did take the child 
 back to such an unmotherly female, she would 
 only employ some one else, more heartless than 
 he was, to do her bidding. In his uncertainty 
 he bethought himself that he might "hit two 
 birds with one stone ' 9 by keeping control of the 
 baby for a few days, in case the woman had lied 
 to him, as he suspected, and its real parents 
 should offer a reward for its recovery. So ho 
 had, on striking Chicago, hunted up a half -or 
 phan asylum, where for a small weekly stipend 
 the children of poor widows and widowers were 
 cared for until their parents could reclaim them. 
 He succeeded in convincing its matron that the 
 child was his, and left it there, saying he would 
 call and pay for its keep from week to week. 
 He next secured employment at the Illinois 
 Central Railway freight house near the mouth 
 of the Chicago River. He was an illiterate and 
 depended upon others for his newspaper infor 
 mation. He had some trouble getting hold of 
 
312 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 any Milwaukee papers, but for a week went 
 out of his way to find them. 
 
 Those whom he induced to look through them 
 found no advertisement in them in regard to 
 any lost child. After that he arranged with a 
 German friend who took one or two of the 
 Cream City's dailies regularly, to watch for 
 such an advertisement, and gave up looking 
 himself. A month later, when he had heard 
 nothing from this friend, he hunted him up and 
 asked him about it; only to be told that the lat 
 ter had forgotten all about it after the first day 
 or two. A couple of months passed in this way 
 without his learning of any offered reward for 
 the locating or return of the baby. Then came 
 the cold weather of winter and in December he 
 lost his job through a local, temporary strike 
 of freight handlers on the Illinois Central, and 
 found the expense of paying even the small 
 amount necessary for the semi-public mainte 
 nance of the infant, an unwelcome burden. 
 
 Unwilling longer to assume the responsibility 
 of its rearing and unable to keep up its support, 
 and figuring in his own ignorant way that it 
 would stand a better chance of final adoption 
 by some substantial householder if left on his 
 door steps during the heart-softening season of 
 the Christmas holidays; he had, on Christmas 
 eve, the poetic anniversary of the finding of 
 
OSTRACISED 313 
 
 that other babe, the Christ-child, by the shep 
 herds, in his lowly manger-bed, taken it away 
 out to " Goose Island' 7 and abandoned it there, 
 at the door of a cottage which looked as though 
 it might be occupied by thrifty and kind-hearted 
 people. He had knocked on the door and run 
 away; and going back an hour later to make 
 sure of the baby's safety, he had been just in 
 time to see a white woman come out and get 
 the baby and run back into the house with it; 
 and that was the last he had ever seen or heard 
 of it until Stubbs had one day overheard him 
 making some maudlin remarks, while under the 
 influence of liquor, about a baby he once 
 "owned" for a while and which he had given 
 to a friend on "Goose Island." He had for 
 gotten he ever made such a "break," but it 
 seemed that Mr. Stubbs had been struck by the 
 singularity of his remark (for an unmarried 
 man) and its coincidence with the finding of 
 John by the Mannings, and had, by threats of 
 exposure, wormed the whole story out of him. 
 The dates and the descriptions tallied fairly 
 with what Stubbs knew of John's history, and 
 the "providential" unearthing of this impor 
 tant evidence gave him the opportunity he had 
 long sought in vain of injuring John's reputa 
 tion, by spreading the story, garbled to suit 
 his own ends. The driver had had no idea that 
 
314 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 the house at which he left the foundling was 
 occupied by Negroes, and was much put out 
 when so informed by Stubbs. 
 
 Instead of going, like a man, to John's fos 
 ter-parents and placing his accidentally ac 
 quired information at their disposal, to be used 
 for John's possible benefit, Stubbs had tried to 
 make capital out of it for his own revengeful 
 purposes. 
 
 When his friend had concluded his account 
 of the meeting and the wagon driver's tale, John 
 sat silent and distraught, his eyes cast down, his 
 hands trembling and his whole body shaking 
 with an emotional chill. He was, at heart, eager 
 to follow up this unanticipated clew to his par 
 entage at once, as the story the woman had re 
 lated to the wagon-driver about the child's be 
 ing illegitimate, when coupled with her evident 
 indifference to her own supposed relationship 
 to it, appeared by no means conclusive to him. 
 Yet, he felt shamed before his two friends, who 
 might, with some show of reason, take for 
 granted the stigma it placed upon his name. 
 
 Eeading his thoughts by the light of their 
 true friendship and respect for him, they called 
 in the waiter and ordered a bottle of light wine 
 to cheer John up, assuring him that they had 
 little confidence in assertions coming from such 
 a woman and would believe nothing detrimental 
 
OSTRACISED 315 
 
 to his genealogy, unless it were established as 
 a truth beyond all possible doubt. 
 
 They retendered him their personal services 
 if he should need them to run down the evi 
 dence. 
 
 Eelieved and heartened by their loyalty and 
 desire to help him, John entered upon an hour's 
 discussion with them of the case in all its bear 
 ings and details, and agreed to appoint another 
 meeting between the three of them if, when he 
 had decided what steps he desired to take in 
 the matter, he found he needed their assistance. 
 His head was in a dizzy whirl of new thoughts 
 and conjectures as he walked back alone to 
 his office, but before he reached it he became 
 calmer and more sanguine, through an unrea 
 soning, yet persisting, conviction that some 
 good must come to him from his proposed in 
 vestigations and search. And, even if his re 
 searches turned out unhappily for him, he must 
 pursue them to the bitter end; for any solution 
 whatsoever of this all-absorbing enigma the 
 mystery surrounding his birth and real parents, 
 would be more endurable than his present state 
 of demoralizing suspense. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 VISITORS AND CONVERGING LINES 
 
 ^- ^^IM and Jemima were still in blissful 
 ^ ignorance, both of Bill Stubbs' in- 
 
 Ift M* nuendos and of their later seeming 
 ^^*^ verification. They naturally did not 
 attend the "swell" functions of the higher 
 white classes, and the rumor started by John's 
 private enemy had not reached the common 
 people around "Goose Island. " As to what he 
 had learned from the driver's story, John 
 deemed it kinder to them and more satisfying 
 to himself to keep it from his foster-parents' 
 ears until he had further unraveled the tangled 
 skein of his earlier existence and traced back 
 its threads to their common origin in the cher 
 ished desire of establishing at least the legitim 
 acy of his birth. To Gretchen he simply said 
 that he had come upon a warm clew through 
 Stubbs' evil machinations, but did not wish to 
 discuss it, even with her, until he had more 
 favorable or fuller news to impart. She experi 
 enced some resentment at this, and was hurt by 
 his implied lack of confidence in her sure loy 
 alty to him under any circumstances of birth his 
 careful process of inquiry might develop; but 
 
 316 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 3 1 7 
 
 she appreciated his extreme sensitiveness on 
 that point and held her peace. She waited with 
 a true woman's patience for the hour of trial 
 for her love, if it must come, feeling inwardly 
 that in the end he must succumb to her unswerv 
 ing fealty, and marry her. About this time a 
 new event transiently carried her thoughts into 
 other channels. 
 
 Four days before the Christmas of this year, 
 Gretchen, on her return home from a shopping 
 expedition through the big down-town stores to 
 select Yule-tide presents for others, was in 
 formed by the cook (it was the house-maid's day 
 off) that some one had called up on the 'phone 
 an hour earlier and asked for her, and would 
 "ring her up" again at five. Ten minutes later 
 the telephone bell rang and Gretchen took up 
 the receiver. 
 
 "Hello! Hello! Is this No. - -?" 
 
 "Yes; who do you want to talk with?" 
 
 ' ' Miss Hummelmueller. ' ' 
 
 "This is Miss Hummelmueller on the wire 
 now." 
 
 "Oh! is that you, Gretchen I Don't you 
 know my voice ? I am Mrs. Marotte, whom you 
 met in Montreal two years ago." 
 
 "Why, how delightful! When did you ar 
 rive and where are you stopping?" 
 
 "I knew you would be glad to see me if I 
 
318 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 let you know I was in Chicago. Mr. Marotte 
 and I are at the Sherman House. We got in 
 just this morning on business, but are going 
 to remain here over the Christmas holidays 
 if you can spare the time to show us the social 
 menagerie of your "village" and will let us join 
 your Christmas revels. Will you, dear?" 
 
 "You know, Mrs. Marotte, mother and I 
 could have no greater pleasure. She'll be aw 
 fully surprised, though. When may we call for 
 you? You must make our house your home 
 while you are here. We don't live in a very 
 attractive neighborhood, but the old house is a 
 dear, old-fashioned place and I know you will 
 enjoy it. Anyhow, you shall 'go out' all you 
 want to I'll get invitations for you and your 
 husband to all the best houses, for their holiday 
 parties; and 
 
 "My! my! child, you quite take my breath 
 away! I'll ask Francois if we'd better go to 
 you I'm sure we'd have a 'scrumptuous' time 
 and I'd hate to spend Christmas all alone in a 
 poky old hotel in this big city." 
 
 "All right! Hurry up!" 
 
 "Hold the wire a minute I hear Francois 
 coming along the hall now Hello! Gretchen, 
 are you still on the wire?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "0, I say! Francois is as pleased as a boy 
 
VISITORS CON VERGING LINES 3 1 9 
 
 over your plans for us. If you can come for us 
 at ten tomorrow morning, we'll be all packed 
 and ready. It's awfully good of you, and I'm 
 just dying to kiss you. Give my love to your 
 mother." 
 
 "How lovely! Won't this be a Christmas 
 to remember! 
 
 "Did you bring your trunks! Yes? I'll 
 telephone the express company to call at the 
 hotel and get them in the morning, and I'll be 
 there myself with mother and the carriage at 
 ten sharp. Are you both well?" 
 
 "Fine! and you've made us very happy, too. 
 Well, good-bye till tomorrow. We've brought 
 you something nice for your Christmas pres 
 ent." 
 
 " Oh ! I bet I '11 just adore it ! what is it ? " 
 4 * That's telling! You shan't see it till Christ 
 mas eve, you little minx!" 
 
 "I must run and tell the folks you're here 
 Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! won't they be excited! 
 I shan't be able to eat a bite till I see you 
 here's a kiss for you can you hear it over the 
 wire? Yes? What fun! ha! ha! ha! ha! 
 good-bye!" 
 
 Preparations for the reception of their unex 
 pected but doubly welcome visitors were has 
 tened; and promptly at ten o'clock of the next 
 morning Gretchen and her mother entered the 
 
320 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 large, ground floor reception room at the hotel. 
 Mrs. Marotte 'phoned down from their room 
 that they were to go up at once, so their demon 
 strative reunion could have full license of pri 
 vacy. The meeting between the four was a joy 
 ous one, free from all conventional restraint, 
 and soon they were all on their way to the Hum- 
 melmueller home, talking so fast that the 
 Marottes scarce noted the ugly and unromantic 
 blocks along which they passed. ' i Papa* ' Hum- 
 melmueller welcomed them at the front door and 
 at once fell in love with the striking-looking, 
 polished-mannered, jovial Canadian couple. The 
 Hummelmueller household still clung to the old- 
 fashioned custom of serving dinner at noon, 
 since the head of the family could so readily 
 reach home from his brewery at that hour, and 
 in half an hour hosts and guests were seated 
 around the generously provided board. In the 
 afternoon they drove through Humboldt, Gar- 
 field and Douglas Parks and along Washington 
 and Ashland boulevards, the fat old carriage 
 team of bays bringing them back in good sea 
 son for an early supper. 
 
 John had gone to Milwaukee in pursuit of 
 his inquiries into the identity of the woman 
 whom Stubbs' informant claimed had asked him 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 321 
 
 to dispose of "her sister's baby," and he did 
 not come back to Chicago for several days. 
 
 After diligent and exhaustive searching, he 
 at length ran across a superannuated police 
 sergeant there who recollected a case of as 
 sumed abduction which had been reported to 
 the Milwaukee police department about twenty 
 years back. But his impression was that the 
 woman sought for as a kidnaper was found dead 
 on the sidewalk near Grand avenue and Fifth 
 street soon after. 
 
 Then, all at once, a great light broke on 
 John's mind. He recalled the strange tale told 
 to him by his own firm's present night watch 
 man whom he had rescued from the slums, and 
 the belief grew upon him that there might be 
 a connection between it and the complemental 
 story of the stock-yards driver. Quick thoughts, 
 of alternating hopefulness and doubting, chased 
 each other through his head, and his heart 
 leaped within him as he perceived that here, 
 perhaps, was the missing link that would belie 
 that woman's base assertion of his illegitimacy, 
 and lead him back along the true trail of his 
 involuntary infantile wanderings, to his actual 
 father and mother. 
 
 The police records of the particular case now 
 under investigation by him, his action prompted 
 by the old sergeant's dim, ambiguous recollec- 
 
322 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 tions, were long since lost or destroyed, and 
 nothing further could be learned in that city; 
 so he caught the evening train to Chicago over 
 the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul, deter 
 mined to * * rout out ' ' the watchman at once and 
 compare notes with him on the two important 
 stories. Arriving at the Union Station, at Canal 
 and West Adams street, while the night was still 
 youthful, he hurried to his machine shops and 
 found the man he wanted on duty, as usual. The 
 latter was surprised by John's appearance there 
 at such an hour, and asked him in some con 
 fusion if anything had gone wrong. John 
 merely shook his head and motioned for him 
 to come with him into his private office. The 
 man obeyed with a bewildered face, and sat 
 down across the table-desk from his benefactor, 
 waiting respectfully for him to explain the rea 
 son for his presence there and what he desired 
 of him. Fixing his eyes upon the man with an 
 anxious but reassuring look, John reminded 
 him of the curious story he had once told him 
 of his adventure with the bears up in Canada 
 and the child he had rescued and taken away 
 with him, only to have it stolen from him a 
 month later. Then he said he had found out cer 
 tain things which led him to think that this 
 child was living and could now be located, and 
 went on to relate the second baby episode. The 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 323 
 
 watchman's face lit up with repressed excite 
 ment and dawning relief as he gave ear to the 
 retelling of this other incident, rivaling his own 
 experience and supplementing it. 
 
 At its conclusion he asked if the driver had 
 given anything like an accurate description of 
 the woman's dress and manner and general ef 
 fect, and how he had described the baby. It 
 seems he had ; and when these observations were 
 detailed to him he jumped to his feet, exclaim 
 ing wildly: 
 
 "It was she it was she, I know! I can re 
 member that dress of hers distinctly. But we 
 can do something more to prove that the child 
 was the same one I took from the bear's lair, if 
 the people who adopted him have kept the little 
 clothes in which they found him; for you say 
 the driver declared, that when he took the baby 
 away from the orphanage, where it had worn 
 the regulation uniform dress of the institution, 
 he discovered they had redressed it in the ori 
 ginal articles of clothing it wore when brought 
 there, although it had largely outgrown them. 
 Well, I would recognize those clothes at a 
 glance ! Besides, you must remember that the 
 driver spoke also of a gold locket and chain he 
 found about the baby's neck containing a writ 
 ten slip of paper which he could not read, but 
 which the head matron of the half -orphan asy- 
 
324 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 lum had, after reading, with some embarrassed 
 hesitation replaced in the locket, telling him it 
 gave no clew to the baby's parents. If he didn't 
 make away with it, but left it on the child, that 
 alone would identify the child as the same one 
 I lost." 
 
 John's heart gave a great, exultant bound; 
 for, in his later youth Jemima had often shown 
 him those very tiny garments, which she meant 
 always to keep sacredly. He could scarce re 
 strain his wild desire to fly to his home with 
 the tremendous good news. He raised his hands 
 nervously to his eyes, to hide his glad tears 
 his almost agonized excess of delirious joy over 
 the coming release from his long melancholy 
 and shamed depression. He wanted to dance, 
 to skip about, to laugh, to shout! Controlling 
 himself heroically, he bade the overjoyed watch 
 man telephone for one of the men of the day 
 force to come at once to the shops and take his 
 place for a couple of hours, so he could accom 
 pany John home and verify their hopeful as 
 sumptions by viewing the infantile ' ' wardrobe, ' ' 
 which John knew had been carefully preserved. 
 Prayers of heart-purifying thanks arose to 
 John's lips, and the blood surged through his 
 veins at fever heat, his pulses racing with his 
 thoughts. An hour subsequently they entered 
 the cottage and surprised his foster-parents just 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 325 
 
 as they were starting to bed. They had not an 
 ticipated so sudden a return on John's part, and, 
 their imaginations catching fire from the evi 
 dent agitation of the two late-comers, were op 
 pressed by visionary apprehensions. 
 
 John quieted their nameless fears, and told 
 them, for the first time and in as few words as 
 was consistent with a clear understanding of 
 the whole affair, the insulting defamation of 
 him Stubbs had spread about, what the sub 
 stantiating of that report had led him to dis 
 cover about his own infantile history, and what 
 still further he surmised. 
 
 He begged Jemima to go and get the box 
 containing his "foundling" wraps and cloth 
 ing. They, the foster-parents, sat speechless, 
 half dazed by confusing doubts and memories. 
 Bousing herself with difficulty from her trance- 
 like absorption, Jemima went to get the pre 
 cious box. The instant she had unwrapped 
 its outside paper and removed the cover of the 
 box, John's companion clutched in both hands 
 the first garment disclosed and held it out at 
 arm's length before him. One look satisfied 
 him, and putting it humbly to his lips, he faced 
 the family and cried out in shaking tones: 
 
 "My God! They are the identical clothes 
 in which I first found him! What wonderful 
 luck! He had other clothes we bought for him 
 
326 ERIC MABOTTE 
 
 in Minneapolis ; but don 't you see I these will 
 enable his real parents, as well as myself, to 
 identify him! And, too, even after twenty 
 years! Thank God! thank God! It seems to 
 lift the weight of years from off my heart and 
 conscience! And to think that this baby of 
 mine was you, John Manning, who so befriended 
 me when I was like a dog in the gutter, with 
 every human foot raised against me and itch 
 ing to kick me down! And that when I told 
 you the story of my wonderful experience I was 
 actually sitting face to face with the very child 
 I had so long sought and I never suspected or 
 dreamed it! It is stranger than any fiction 1 
 ever read! Who could have foreseen that the 
 bread I cast in my humble way upon the water, 
 would be returned to me so nobly magnified 
 after all these years! My heart is very full 
 tonight. After this miracle of Providence I 
 shall never despair again V 9 
 
 John seized the man's hand firmly in silent 
 comprehension of the other wondrous reward 
 his own inspired act of simple, natural charity 
 to this fellow-being had brought so indirectly 
 to himself; and he there resolved that now, more 
 than ever, he would never forget to help those 
 whom the cold and cruel world of men forgot. 
 
 After the watchman had gone back to his 
 work, forgetting in his excitement and his cer- 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 327 
 
 tainty of identification of the baby's clothes, 
 all about the locket and chain, Jemima came 
 and put her arms around John's neck and 
 sobbed her perturbed heart out on his breast, 
 while Jim turned away to hide his overpower 
 ing feelings. 
 
 "0 John! John! John! my darling son! Do 
 not think I don't rejoice with you in your so- 
 longed-for discovery of the key to your true 
 identity, " wept Jemima; u but, oh! it will break 
 my heart to lose you to another, even if that 
 other be the woman of whose own body you 
 were once a part. For you have been as much 
 my son to me as the strongest ties of blood 
 could ever have made you and you are all we 
 have ' our one ewe lamb ! ' ' ' 
 
 John gently lifted her face to his own and 
 kissed her, keeping one arm about her. 
 
 " Don't say that, mother. You know I shall 
 always love and revere both you and my fos 
 ter-father, even if I do find other parents await 
 ing my coming. They, perhaps, may have 
 passed in want and sorrow the long years you 
 two and I have spent in love and happiness; 
 and your own hearts are too large, too tender, 
 to wish to deny them now a little of that sweet, 
 mutual solace with which we three have, by 
 God's mercy, so long been blessed. I cannot 
 and will not deny my own blood, but my heart 
 
328 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 can hold your love with theirs. Remember, too, 
 that I may never find them, or find them but to 
 find them dead, the only consolation left to me, 
 their memories and their graves. Be comforted, 
 parents mine, and it may yet be well with all 
 of us." 
 
 They became quieter and Jemima, upon a 
 sudden thought, went into her bedroom and 
 brought out the little locket worn by John 
 when he was first brought to them. As she now 
 opened it, out fell the narrow slip of paper on 
 which was written the cruelly bitter message 
 she had kept hidden from everyone but her 
 husband. 
 
 John stooped and picked it up, and read 
 thereon the fearful curse it strove to put upon 
 him. His eyes blazed, the hot blood lashed his 
 forehead, his hand clenched, crushing the vile 
 paper; but he compressed his lips tightly over 
 the passionate invectives that welled from his 
 heart. Handing it back reluctantly to his fos 
 ter-mother, he said: 
 
 "Now that we know it is a horrible, inhuman 
 lie, I can try to forget if not forgive it; but if 
 I believed that the woman who bore me ever 
 voluntarily wrote it, I should never seek her, 
 nor forgive her. 
 
 "You have taught me so well what a true 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 329 
 
 mother can be, that I should simply abhor and 
 shun her! 
 
 "Ah! to think, mother, that all this time 
 you and father knew of this fatal blemish sup 
 posed to rest upon my name and yet were too 
 kind too noble to breathe a word of it to me 
 or others! God bless you! How strong must 
 be your love for me!" 
 
 He buried his face in his hands and wept 
 uncontrolled with great, tearing sobs that shook 
 him to his very soul. The scenes and emotional 
 feelings through which he had lately moved, a 
 leading actor, in such quick succession, had 
 broken down the barrier of his long years of 
 mental and heart-wearying isolation, and his 
 unnatural reserve was swept away forever. He 
 had become a child again, and could believe 
 his doubts and darkness fled. 
 
 Growing calmer, the three talked on of many 
 things, but principally of the measures best to 
 be taken in a renewed attempt to discover, liv 
 ing or dead, the lost parents. For the Man 
 nings did not hesitate for a second in declaring 
 this the one great thing to be considered. It 
 was one o'clock in the morning before a feas 
 ible plan was settled upon, which, though it 
 might be far-fetched and uncertain of result, 
 appeared to be about the surest and most prac 
 tical method of procedure. This plan was, for 
 
330 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 John to despatch the watchman who had taken 
 him from the bear's den, back over the route 
 by which he had come on his memorable flight 
 into the United States, with abundant funds 
 and instructions to start out as nearly as pos 
 sible from the place where he had found the 
 child, and follow the river down its course, ask 
 ing of loggers and townspeople and the local 
 authorities as he went, the information he 
 sought, and following up to wherever it led, 
 any slightest clew they could give him. When 
 he should have gathered enough evidence to 
 warrant his sending for him, John was to go on 
 himself and take charge of the " chase " per 
 sonally. 
 
 John was well aware that this man would 
 willingly brave any hardship to serve him, and 
 that he had never ceased to regret his own in 
 ability to restore him to his parents, from 
 whom, in a manner, he had taken him ; and after 
 the first of the year he could be spared from 
 the shops for a while readily enough, as a por 
 tion of the day force was to be temporarily 
 laid off on account of changes to be made in 
 the plant and one of these men would be glad 
 of the chance to take his place on the night 
 watch. 
 
 After he went to bed that night (in the little 
 room that had been built onto the cottage for 
 
VISITORS CONVERGING LINES 331 
 
 his especial use), John lay awake for many 
 minutes trying to realize what all these new 
 revelations meant to him. How, if everything 
 turned out as he hoped, it would remove all ob 
 stacles in the way of his marriage with Gretchen 
 how it would give to him those rights and 
 ties of blood over the lack of which he had so 
 long and sadly brooded how it would, in all 
 likelihood, absolve him forever from that night 
 mare of his waking days, the unchangeable 
 curse of color how he was now born anew unto 
 all the joys of a new-found world of unalloyed 
 happiness. He dropped asleep at last to dream 
 of hunting for hours, through impenetrable 
 Canadian forests and along icy, turbulent 
 streams, elusive shapes that turned and smiled 
 at him, only to utterly and inevitably disappear 
 as he rushed towards them with outstretched 
 arms, crying: 
 
 " Father! Mother! Wait for me! It is I! " 
 and fell down weeping and despairing in the 
 cold, deep snow. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE DENOUEMENT 
 
 HILE John was thus making new 
 history for himself and those he 
 loved, in uncovering the long bur* 
 ied knowledge of his own origin, 
 Gretchen and her mother and father, all un 
 aware of the important and prophetic happen 
 ings and developments that were to affect so 
 materially their future lives and happiness, 
 were busily entertaining their guests, who en 
 tered with zestful enthusiasm into all their 
 plans for them. The first two evenings they 
 spent with them at holiday parties on the South 
 side, where introductions to the Marottes were 
 much in demand and the visitors began to get 
 that intimate insight into the lives of a city's 
 residents which no sojourn in any hotel can 
 ever give one. 
 
 One may travel, as the writer has done, over 
 all Europe and North America, and if he stops 
 only at high-priced hotels, he will come home 
 with little or no real knowledge of the habits 
 and usages, joys and sorrows, of the people 
 indigenous to those countries through which he 
 hurries; for life in the best the principal 
 hotels is much the same the world over. 
 
 332 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 333 
 
 On the afternoon of the day before Christmas 
 Mrs. Marotte sat with Gretchen in the latter 's 
 combined dressing and bedroom while the young 
 girl, who had just bathed, was laying out and 
 donning her evening clothes. Even a woman 
 must sometimes acknowledge the extreme, 
 wildly-attractive beauty and charm of some 
 other creature of her own sex, and Mrs. Marotte 
 was almost startled by the perfection of 
 Gretchen 's form, disclosed by her negligee the 
 delicious, cool curvings of her arms and should 
 ers, the tawny, creamy clearness of her skin, 
 the blossoming voluptuousness of her limbs and 
 bosoms. 
 
 As the girl slipped on a dainty dressing 
 gown of pale blue, ruffled-edged chiffon laid 
 over a soft lining of French-gray silk, her friend 
 called to her to come and sit beside her on the 
 antique, high-backed sofa, saying she wished 
 to talk seriously with her. 
 
 Gretchen complied with a laughing smile 
 and, leaning back gracefully with one bare arm 
 thrown carelessly over the high end of the old 
 Colonial settee, her nether limbs crossed com 
 fortably and showing her shapely, tapering bare 
 ankles and her perfect, unmarred feet enclosed 
 in low lounging slippers, she prepared to listen 
 to the " serious talk" of her beloved guest. 
 
334 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 With becoming diffidence Mrs. Marotte com 
 menced: 
 
 "Gretchen, dear, you have never told me 
 anything about your little love affairs, such as 
 most girls of your age are generally eager to 
 confide to their close, bosom friends. Have you 
 no beaux or lovers?'' 
 
 Gretchen blushed, and was still for a mo 
 ment. Thinking she might have offended her, 
 the elder woman hastened to speak again, in 
 apology of her directness. But Gretchen held 
 up one pink-palmed hand in mild protest. 
 
 "I understand you perfectly, Mrs. Marotte 
 it was a natural inquiry on your part, but my 
 situation in regard to such matters is so peculiar 
 that I hesitate to speak of it to anyone at all. 
 I believe, nevertheless, that now, since you have 
 asked me this question, I will tell you all about 
 it, as I have such genuine confidence in your 
 good heart and wise judgment that you may 
 even be of help to me in deciding my action in 
 relation to certain things I have been unable 
 to bring myself either to do, or to leave undone 
 eventually. 
 
 "Yes, my dear, I have a 'beau,' as you call 
 him, whom I dearly love and who, I am sure, 
 adores me. We have been playmates, compan 
 ions and lovers from our earliest childhood 
 days and are perfectly congenial and adapted 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 335 
 
 to each other. But there is a serious drawback 
 (at least it seems so to him) that prevents our 
 closer union. I would overlook this in a minute, 
 but he is too proud and self-sacrificing to let me 
 do so; and I am too fond of him to force him 
 into doing anything he might afterwards regret 
 in bitterness of spirit. 
 
 "Do you know, I sometimes think that the 
 stubbornness of a rare and high nobility is 
 harder to overcome than that of pure selfish 
 ness 1" 
 
 Mrs. Marotte, deeply impressed by the dig 
 nity and pathos of her changed manner, asked 
 quickly : 
 
 "What impediment can there be that could 
 possibly cause him to hesitate in claiming 
 you you with the form of a goddess and the 
 disposition of an angel? Why, I know men 
 who have sold their souls for women with not 
 one half your fascinations! He must be mad!" 
 
 "If he is," countered Gretchen, "his is the 
 madness of the soul not of the mind. I can 
 best explain Ms position to you, by telling you 
 the story of his life. It is a most pathetic and 
 noble one, and your own kind heart will bleed 
 for him before I have done with it." 
 
 Mrs. Marotte took one of Gretchen 's soft 
 hands in her own and held it caressingly while 
 she hung with close attention upon her words. 
 
336 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 Gretchen's face paled, and her lips opened and 
 closed tremulously, but then grew firm as she 
 resumed : 
 
 "Exactly twenty-one years ago today, " she 
 began, "a foundling was left and discovered 
 at the foot of the front steps of a little cottage 
 not two blocks from this house. The childless 
 man and wife who lived there, considered it a 
 blessing sent to them by God on the very anni 
 versary of that day on which he had sent his 
 own Son to bless the world, two thousand years 
 before. They were filled with happiness and 
 glory, and kept him (for it was a boy), and 
 they named him John. 
 
 "The child throve, and grew up strong, 
 obedient and lovely to look upon; and 7 came 
 to know him well. He was legally adopted by 
 his foster-parents, who were in moderate cir 
 cumstances, but thrifty, and owned the cottage 
 in which they lived. 
 
 "He and I attended the same school and al 
 ways played together. We graduated from 
 common school at the same time, and again were 
 classmates and again graduated together from 
 high-school, and he was the valedictorian of 
 our class. 
 
 "One day there was a terrible fire here on 
 the 'Island,' devastating many acres of stored 
 lumber, and I, who had been playing with other 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 337 
 
 children among the lumber-piles, was deserted 
 by the rest in their fright, at the first alarm, 
 and, becoming confused in the labyrinths of 
 boards and timbers, was caught and hemmed in 
 by the flames, and there, all alone, faced death 
 in its most frightful form. 
 
 i l Thousands were pressing to my rescue, but 
 none could reach me. I stood upon a high, hol 
 low square of flaming timbers and watched their 
 fruitless efforts, shouting and waving my dress- 
 sash to direct their way to me. When I saw, 
 as I thought, that all was over for me, I fell to 
 the ground inside the square and fainted away. 
 "Then that boy came to me through the red- 
 hot blasts of a living hell upon the wings of his 
 unconquerable love for me, and carried me upon 
 his shoulders, up ten feet against the burning 
 boards and down the outer side of the square, 
 which fell in a fiery crash as we struck the 
 ground. He dragged me a hundred feet and 
 into a miniature tunnel known to but a few of 
 us once built in play by ourselves and our 
 young playmates and long ago forgotten. 
 
 "I stayed with him, perforce, in that narrow 
 haven, with the hellish flames licking at its en 
 trances, all through that night, and there I 
 learned how much I loved him. We walked 
 out hand-in-hand next morning, practically un- 
 
338 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 scathed, from that blackened pyre, like resur 
 rected spirits from the grave. 
 
 "Our lives went on as before and I was 
 happy; but the boy's whole existence was em 
 bittered by a certain disability (he named it 
 1 curse') which I, myself, ignored, but which 
 continued to prey upon his mind until I some 
 times feared for his reason. 
 
 "He at first declined to accept the ten thou 
 sand dollars reward my dear father had of 
 fered for my seemingly impossible rescue, say 
 ing that ' what he had done he would never have 
 done for money'; but upon the reluctant acqui 
 escence of his foster-parents in its acceptance 
 and the insistent and almost tearful entreaties 
 of both my father and mother, and myself, he 
 finally, though unwillingly, consented to allow 
 it to be invested for his benefit, in order that 
 he might gain his heart's desire of entering 
 and finishing Yale University through his care 
 ful use of the income from it added to what 
 his foster-parents could spare him. 
 
 "The boy passed the entrance examinations 
 without conditions and was matriculated into 
 Yale, and four years later graduated from that 
 great university with honors. He returned to 
 Chicago, and, putting on overalls, went into a 
 machine shop and worked his way up from the 
 bottom of the ladder to a secretaryship in the 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 339 
 
 company in two short years. He then became 
 one of the" three controlling stockholders of the 
 owning corporation into which the concern was 
 organized at his suggestion, through the wise 
 reinvestment of the ten thousand dollars prin 
 cipal of the fund held in trust for him by my 
 father and his foster-father, in its stock, to 
 gether with its accumulated increment and the 
 savings from his own wages. 
 
 "He has constantly given his personal at 
 tention and charity, yet without seeking notori 
 ety, to helping the fallen to rise again. He has 
 never uttered an untruth nor feared another 
 man. 
 
 "He is the noblest human creature I have 
 ever met or can ever hope to meet and I love 
 him, and he loves me as man has seldom loved 
 a woman and yet, he says he cannot marry 
 me." Her voice trailed off in a tragic whisper. 
 
 "But, dear heart, why can he not?" inter 
 posed Mrs. Marotte in tantalized remonstrance. 
 
 "Ah! that is the pity, the tragedy of it 
 the soul-searing pathos of his story! It is be 
 cause his foster-parents are Negroes and, while 
 he is, to all appearances, as white as you or I, 
 the burden and preponderance of what little 
 evidence has yet been found is, that he, too, is 
 black or has the taint of Negro blood within 
 his veins. In fact, certain unscrupulous, cold- 
 
340 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 blooded and purse-proud persons have taken 
 side with a former school-boy rival of iris whom 
 he once worsted in a personal encounter brought 
 on by that rival's unbearable, continuous af 
 fronts and indignities. This enemy of his (and 
 of mine ; for he long persecuted me with his un 
 welcome attentions) now arrogantly and mali 
 ciously claims to have secured damning proof, 
 not only of my lover's taint of color, but of his 
 illegitimacy as well. And so the man I love is 
 gradually becoming socially ostracised by those 
 who are not fit to kiss his feet. 
 
 "Yet, I know that he is not a Negro. My 
 woman's my lover's instinct tells me that it 
 cannot be so. I know it by that same sixth 
 sense that tells you your own long-departed son 
 is still alive. And, too, in all the years of our 
 close intimacy I have never observed the slight 
 est indication of such a thing. 
 
 "But it is slowly breaking his great heart 
 this never-ending, hope-benumbing, joy-defer 
 ring, cruel suspense; and if that breaks, my 
 own heart, too, must break!" 
 
 As Gretchen ceased speaking her voice rose 
 into a tortured wail and she threw herself on 
 her friend's breast in a torrent of convulsive 
 sobbing and blinding tears sobbing, sobbing, 
 sobbing as though her heart indeed must break. 
 
 Mrs. Marotte, shocked and terrified at the 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 341 
 
 impossibility of this young girl's infatuation 
 with a Negro of questionable birth, and by the 
 wild abandon of the reaction of her pent-up 
 misery, held her close and soothed her. She 
 thought rapidly, pondering over what to say 
 to her how to advise her in justice to both 
 herself and her noble-hearted, but doubly un 
 fortunate lover. At last a dim light gleamed 
 athwart her darker musings, and she asked 
 quietly: 
 
 "Cannot I meet this young man you love 
 while I am here? I could never disregard him 
 after all you have told me, but if I might see 
 and talk with him without his being aware 
 that I was in your confidence as a mere trav 
 eling acquaintance of your's and your mother's 
 I feel that something will come of it that 
 will help you both, perhaps more than even I 
 can imagine at this moment. 9 ' 
 
 "0, yes! you must be sure to meet him now. 
 He will be back from Milwaukee, where he has 
 gone to trace a strong clew to the real circum 
 stances of his birth and parentage, for Christ 
 mas, and he and his foster-parents, the Mann 
 ings, will be at our Christmas party tomorrow 
 night. But do, please, be very careful not to 
 disclose to him by any slightest word or un 
 thinking action that I have been so frank with 
 you in regard to our peculiar mutual relations. 
 
342 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 "He is highly sensitive to the impression 
 he makes on other persons, because of that 
 sense of personal disability which is ever up 
 permost in his own mind, and just now, I fear, 
 this susceptibility is aggravated by his antici 
 pation of the probably unfavorable results of 
 his present looking up of the base calumny put 
 in circulation by that enemy of ours of whom I 
 have just told you. He has not informed me 
 yet of his progress, and, for his own sake, I 
 dread to ask him." 
 
 Mrs. Marotte gave the implied promise, but 
 requested that when the festive evening came 
 Gretchen point out to her her lover from a little 
 distance before introducing him, so she could 
 study him unrestrictedly and without his knowl 
 edge for a few minutes. Gretchen now bathed 
 her smarting eyes, and her friend dressed her 
 and coiled her beautiful, heavy hair at the nape 
 of her neck with deft fingers and admiring 
 glances. And together they went down to join 
 the rest of the two families at .supper, just as 
 the old-fashioned, turbaned darky cook rang 
 the big, old-fashioned supper bell in the good, 
 old-fashioned way. 
 
 The Hummelmuellers had fixed upon Christ 
 mas night instead of Christmas eve, as the date 
 of their old-fashioned " home-party, " with its 
 giant Christmas tree laden with presents and all 
 
VIEW TAKEN FROM CHICAGO COURT HOUSE, IN 18S9, LOOKING 
 
 SOUTHWEST AND SHOWING THE CORNER OF LA SALLE 
 
 AND WASHINGTON STREETS 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 343 
 
 the rooms festooned and strung with evergreens 
 and bright with flowers and wide, deep-red rib 
 bons. Their southern darky mammy was in all 
 her glory as chef to the occasion, bossing about 
 with professional superciliousness the white 
 neighbors who came to help prepare the great 
 annual feast of plenty. She was so funny that 
 they forgot to kick, and did just as she directed, 
 that tomorrow ' i everything might be lovely and 
 the goose hang high." The hospitable Hum- 
 melmuellers had not seen John since his return 
 from Milwaukee the day before, and they 
 looked forward with inquisitive longing to his 
 arrival with his foster-father and mother on 
 the occasion of this, their principal holiday 
 event. More particularly so in view of the dou 
 ble significance the day held for them as being 
 the anniversary of the coming of both Christ 
 and John. 
 
 The Christmas dusk descended from the still, 
 gray clouds; the air was brisk and keen; the 
 snow lay deep, covering with its mantle of ideal 
 izing purity and loveliness the realism of all 
 outwardly sordid, ugly things. Everything was 
 in readiness at the old time-hallowed homestead. 
 An indescribable atmosphere of peace, good- will 
 and jovial mystery pervaded every room, for 
 God and Love and Hope were there. The great 
 evergreen behind the close-folded doors of the 
 
344 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 library still reigned in lonely splendor, but the 
 balance of the rooms were comfortably filled 
 with neighbors and invited friends by half -past 
 seven o'clock. 
 
 No attempt was made to receive them and 
 introduce them through a "bawler-out" in the 
 stiff, formal manner of modern social entertain 
 ments, as the guests were all mutual acquaint 
 ances. Mr. and Mrs. Hummelmueller moved 
 about among them hospitably, giving each a 
 cordial hand-shake and a genial word, while 
 Gretchen chaperoned Mr. and Mrs. Marotte. 
 
 The floor of the long double parlor had been 
 covered with canvas for the dancing and over 
 in one corner of the hall, behind the wide stair 
 case and screened by palms waving in the draft 
 from the constantly opening and closing front 
 door, six members of Johnny Hand's Immortal 
 Band, without which no really swell Chicago 
 reception or dinner-dance could be complete, 
 discoursed its liveliest strains, interspersed with 
 Christmas hymns and carols, the children ac 
 companying the latter with their shrill, buoyant 
 young voices. 
 
 About eight o'clock Mrs. Marotte stood talk 
 ing with Gretchen at the rear end of the im 
 provised dancing floor, where the recess of a 
 bay window afforded a partial privacy. As the 
 former looked up and across the bobbing heads 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 345 
 
 of the young people, John came to the hall 
 doorway of the front parlor. He was alone. He 
 remained standing there for a minute or two, 
 letting his eyes wander over the assembled 
 faces, seeking that of the l ' one girl in the world 
 for him." 
 
 Suddenly Mrs. Marotte gasped and pressed 
 with her hand her throbbing throat. She 
 nudged Gretchen 's elbow gently and whispered 
 with catching breath: 
 
 " Quick, quick! Gretchen, who is that tall, 
 dark young man at the parlor door?" 
 
 Then Gretchen saw him and started towards 
 him involuntarily, but, remembering Mrs. 
 Marotte 's urgent request to point John out to 
 her before introducing him, stepped back in 
 stead, behind a convenient palm, and answered 
 her friend archly: 
 
 "Oh! I almost forgot our agreement. That 
 is John, my * little beau. ' How strange that you 
 should note him so quickly!" 
 
 The other woman did not reply, but stood 
 rigid, staring with dilating eyes at John's ap 
 proaching figure, just as though she saw a half 
 familiar apparition. Gretchen's own eyes fol 
 lowed her friend 's fascinated gaze, and her heart 
 thumped to suffocation as she perceived upon 
 her lover's face, not its usual expression of dif 
 fidence and melancholy, but the light of a great 
 
346 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 joy. It was scarcely a minute before John dis 
 covered her retreat and came up to her with 
 swift, eager, impatient steps. Giving but a 
 glance and a slight bow of deference to her 
 companion, he clasped both Gretchen's hands 
 in his and looked long and deep down into her 
 sparkling eyes, his whole soul speaking through 
 his own, until Gretchen's neck and features 
 were burnt crimson by the answering blushes 
 of love. Happiness nay, ecstasy, was embla 
 zoned in undeniable letters on his every fea 
 ture, and ere he spoke a word Gretchen cried 
 out to him softly: 
 
 "Oh! John! my love! I read good news in 
 your dear face! What is it? Tell me! You 
 are so changed, so lovely, I cannot be misled 
 about it." 
 
 John raised her shaking hands to his lips 
 and kissed them rapturously again and again, 
 but no word came only his lips dumbly but 
 surely formed a wondrous "Yes!" 
 
 Tears of unutterable pride and love and 
 glory transformed her awe-filled eyes to liquid 
 gems. Recovering command of her emotions 
 and remembering the friend beside her, she 
 turned to her, and placing a hand affection 
 ately upon Mrs. Marotte's arm, drew her to 
 wards John and introduced him. The older 
 woman had watched them, pale and tense, dur- 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 347 
 
 ing their lovers 7 greeting, and as John came 
 forward her eyes never left his face. There 
 was a great dread a great hunger in them. 
 
 "Mrs. Marotte, this is John Manning, of 
 whom I have told you so many interesting 
 things." "John, take Mrs. Marotte to a seat 
 and tell her what a bold, bad girl I seem to one 
 who really and truly knows me," she banter- 
 ingly added. 
 
 John gave an arm to this new acquaintance 
 reluctantly and with a remonstrant look at 
 Gretchen, who skipped away to meet other 
 guests, and conducted his charge to the nearest 
 unoccupied chairs. He had heard Gretchen 
 speak of her gratefully some time before, as 
 her kindly chaperon at Montreal, and was pre 
 disposed to like her for Gretchen 's sake; but, 
 just like a man, he couldn't see why Gretchen 
 should run off and leave him with this strange 
 woman on his hands when he had so much he 
 was dying to say to Gretchen herself at the mo 
 ment. * ' Women were funny about such things, ' ' 
 he thought. 
 
 Mrs. Marotte, who was evidently restrain 
 ing her impatience to talk with him with the 
 utmost difficulty, read his thoughts, and smiled 
 to herself; but she waited to catch his eyes and 
 hold them before giving speech to the amazing 
 things that filled her mind. After a short in- 
 
348 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 terval of small-talk, during which she still 
 closely observed and scrutinized his slightest 
 movement and peculiarity of manner, and unob 
 trusively surveyed him from head to foot and 
 back again and tried to analyze the tones of 
 his voice, she could contain herself no longer, 
 and, without leading up to the subject in any 
 way, asked him abruptly: 
 
 "Mr. Manning, pardon my freedom I as 
 sure you I am actuated by no idle curiosity in 
 asking you this but has Miss Gretchen ever 
 related to you the story I told her one night 
 in Montreal?" 
 
 1 ' No, Madam ; I think not. I I 'm sure not, ' ' 
 replied he, perplexedly. 
 
 "Ah! Will you mind very much if I tell 
 you myself, now? I will make it as short as I 
 can, and I believe it will interest you strongly. * ' 
 
 Wrought upon by the suddenness and 
 strangeness of her proposal, John could only 
 falter, "Not at all, Mrs. Marotte; please let 
 me hear it." 
 
 Then hurriedly and briefly, in tones low but 
 vibrating with contagious feeling, Mrs. Marotte 
 outlined to him the substance of the anecdote 
 concerning the loss of her only son so many 
 years ago, which Gretchen had heard two years 
 before, but had never thought to repeat to 
 John. 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 349 
 
 As she proceeded, liis face grew grave, Ms 
 eyes expressed a wondering alertness. He 
 waited, breathless, for the story 's climax. At 
 its conclusion, Mrs. Marotte, still drawing his 
 charmed attention to herself, went on to tell 
 him what Gretchen had detailed to her (in a 
 confidence which she now felt called upon to 
 abuse for a greater end) of his unknown par 
 entage and early abandonment to the " tender 
 mercies ' ' of the world, and asked him pointedly 
 what further discoveries in regard to his earlier 
 life he had made during his just-ended journey, 
 saying she knew he had not yet informed 
 Gretchen of them, but that they must soon be 
 come public property and she begged him to 
 enlighten herself now. 
 
 Wholly unnoted by the two in their keen 
 engrossment, Mr. Marotte had stopped directly 
 in front of them at this point in their conversa 
 tion, waiting to be introduced to the good look 
 ing young man who seemed to be getting on 
 so famously with his charming wife. But be 
 fore he could address the latter, John began 
 the rapid relation to Mrs. Marotte of an epi 
 tome of the two equally strange adventures 
 which he had but yesterday pieced together into 
 one bizarre fabric; and the older man stood 
 there before them, entranced, spellbound, weigh 
 ing the importance of every sentence. For his 
 
350 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 wife had but that morning made plain to him 
 the unique relations between Gretchen and a 
 certain young man of mysterious antecedents, 
 and whom he surmised to be no other than the 
 one now telling such extraordinary things. 
 
 Mrs. Marotte's heart raced tumultuously; her 
 breath came in painful, catching sighs, and a 
 faintness, as if the truth were too great to grasp, 
 oppressed her as John passed from one to the 
 other of his two counter tales. 
 
 As he ended his final peroration with the 
 complete dove-tailing union of the correspond 
 ing parts of the separate stories and the details 
 of his almost hopeless but unbending determina 
 tion to begin at once the renewed search for his 
 own parents through the Canadian wilds, her 
 eyes left his face and met her husband's en 
 lightened glance resting intently upon John's 
 face. With a surprised exclamation she dis 
 cerned a notable likeness in the faces of the 
 two men a noticeable resemblance in their 
 build and carriage. John's gaze followed hers 
 and took in the quiet gentleman who had so 
 obviously been eavesdropping upon them. 
 Quickly, Mrs. Marotte touched the young man 's 
 sleeve 
 
 "John, my husband." 
 
 The same thought ran through the mind of 
 each of them and caused them to regard each 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 351 
 
 other with quickened pulses, shyly held in thrall 
 by the immensity of their conception checked 
 by a new-born restraint and with the incredu 
 lous eyes of those about to prove the enchanted 
 web that Fate has woven about them. Quietly 
 and solemnly, Mr. Marotte sat down beside the 
 other two. Question succeeded question and 
 answer supplemented answer between them as 
 they fitted together mentally the living blocks 
 of the three different stories with ever-narrow 
 ing sureness and completeness. 
 
 By now Gretchen, missing them among the 
 other guests, approached to find them. Struck 
 by the rapt looks on their faces and their close 
 intimacy of position for such a brief acquain 
 tance, she gaped in wide-eyed wonder at the trio. 
 Catching sight of her, Mrs. Marotte jumped to 
 her feet, and, clasping her around the waist, 
 covered her dumbfounded young face with 
 smothering kisses, while John, in speechless awe 
 and veneration, watched dumbly these three 
 ideal beings so nearly bound to him by such 
 endearing ties. 
 
 Both of the men had arisen on the same im 
 pulse. 
 
 "What what has happened?" gasped 
 Gretchen. * ' You you frighten me ! ' ' 
 
 " Gretchen, dearest, do you know who this 
 
352 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 young man is?" asked Mrs. Marrotte, senten- 
 tiously. 
 
 "I know only that he is he John Manning 
 that is enough for me ! ' ' 
 
 "No! dear heart; he is not John Manning 
 he is Eric Marotte! our own long lost son! 
 My mother-instinct has told me all along that 
 he could not be dead ! ' ' 
 
 "My God! Francois, do you realize that this 
 boy is our son our son! our long-mourned, 
 never-forgotten baby?" And with a low, in 
 articulate, crooning cry, she flung herself upon 
 the trembling boy, kissing his mouth and eyes 
 and hair and hands with streaming tears and 
 spasmodic sobbing in a paroxysm of famished 
 motherhood a fierce gluttony of love regained. 
 
 John enfolded her close in his strong young 
 arms, against his throbbing heart, and brokenly 
 whispered softly and abashed : ' i My mother; at 
 last! Oh! God is good!" 
 
 Disengaging her still-clinging arms and plac 
 ing her gently upon a chair, he wheeled about 
 and grasped the other man 's hand with his own 
 in a grip that hurt. 
 
 6 ' Father my father ! Can it be true ? Oh ! 
 don't deceive me! I could not stand it!" 
 
 Mr. Marotte ran his hands fondly through 
 the boy's thick dark hair, and with his warm 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 353 
 
 lips set the seal of a father's recognition and 
 long-hoarded love upon his forehead. 
 
 Gretchen crept closer, a great dread pnlling 
 at her heart-strings as she watched this pathet 
 ically glad, tremendously centered reunion, the 
 three participants in which seemed to have no 
 thought or recognition left for others around 
 them. She experienced such a feeling as might 
 engulf a lost soul, banished without the pale 
 of Paradise and gazing with seared eyeballs 
 at the blessed souls within. A deadly pall of 
 diffidence and doubt seemed to be enshrouding 
 her. She did not speak would John turn from 
 her now in his new-found elevation of caste, 
 he now heir to millions and she but the humble 
 daughter of a German brewer! Ah ! she had not 
 turned away from him when her own star was 
 in the ascendency over his and he had believed 
 himself a Negro ! How true the bard who sang, 
 "Love of man's life's a thing apart 'tis 
 woman's whole existence!" As her thoughts 
 thus led her blindly along through this * * slough 
 of despond," she swayed on her feet and 
 clutched at the nearest arm it was John's. 
 
 He swung round instantly and caught her in 
 a tender embrace. 
 
 " Ah! little doubter, I can read your thoughts. 
 Your eyes are an open book to me. Heart of 
 my heart and soul of my soul shalt thou be for- 
 
354 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 ever, * Little Sunshine* at last we're met no 
 more to part!" 
 
 "Mother! father! this is the dear little 
 woman who clung to me in spite of all that 
 seemed against me; who has loved me always, 
 and would have married me even knowing me 
 to be a Negro except that I forbade the sacri 
 fice. Kiss her lovingly and reverently for she 
 will soon be your own adored daughter, and 
 God has never made another like her." And, 
 setting a "shining example" of his amorous ad 
 monition on her drooping eyelids and tempting 
 lips, he handed her over to them. 
 
 The Christmas entertainment had gone on 
 without intermission during the whole of this 
 stirring and unusual scene, the rest of the 
 "company" merely showing their polite curi 
 osity by occasional sidelong looks and whis 
 pered questions addressed to each other sotto 
 voce. 
 
 At Mrs. Hummelmueller's invitation "all 
 hands" now began to gather about the closed 
 door hiding the wonders of the Christmas tree, 
 the unlading of which was to be done by Mr. 
 Hummelmueller himself, who made a very 
 chubby and nimble little Santa Claus in his full 
 paraphernalia of "Saint Nick." 
 
 Soon the great folding doors were thrown 
 back, and with shrieks of delight and wondering 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 355 
 
 admiration the children romped into the fairy 
 chamber in advance of their elders. Everyone 
 present had been remembered with some taste 
 ful, amusing or useful gift, and paper wrappers 
 and covers flew about as they undid the pack 
 ages amid ejaculations of surprise and shouted 
 thanks. Then came the Yule-tide supper and 
 dance, and the short night wore away in un 
 restricted joys and happiness unconfined. The 
 wonderful good news of John's discovery of 
 and recovery by his true parents, was imparted 
 to Gretchen's father and mother at the first op 
 portunity, to their infinite astonishment and de 
 light, and John hunted up Jim and Jemima and 
 presented them to the Marottes, who filled them 
 with a proud pleasure that did much to soften 
 their deep sorrow over the coming parting with 
 John they now knew must be, by their profuse 
 and heart-disclosing thanks and felicitations 
 for all they had done for their once fatherless 
 and motherless boy. And even more by their 
 promise that John would still regard them as 
 his foster-parents and their enthusiastic predic 
 tions of his brilliant future in his new life. On 
 the morrow the Marottes visited the Mannings' 
 cottage home and were astounded at its com 
 forts and refinements. The little, gold, ruby-set 
 locket and the baby garments, found on John 
 twenty-one years before, were shown them, and 
 
356 ERIC MAROTTE' 
 
 they recognized them at once, thus making 
 John's identification perfect and complete, ir 
 refragable and beyond all peradventure. 
 
 Mrs. Marotte wept over the cruel note in the 
 locket, and it was destroyed there and then. 
 They dined there at noon with the Mannings, 
 Gretchen and John and enjoyed it immensely 
 the latter two so happy they could scarcely 
 eat at all. Sudden happiness, like great grief, 
 destroys the appetite. 
 
 For several days afterwards John's two 
 mothers met continually at one house or the 
 other, and Mrs. Marotte never grew tired of 
 hearing Jemima's wonderful stories of John's 
 babyhood, childhood and youthful life and pre- 
 cosities, which she, his rightful mother, had so 
 sadly missed. 
 
 At breakfast on New Year's morning, Jirn 
 found a letter addressed to him lying beside his 
 plate on the dining-room table where Jemima 
 had placed it. It had arrived by special delivery 
 during Jim's absence from the house the night 
 before, and John, who was partly in its secret, 
 had earnestly requested Jemima not to let his 
 foster-father see it till the New Year, as it 
 might, very probably, contain a present in 
 tended for that day. Breakfast was ready 
 early, and both John and Jemima had taken 
 their seats at the table before Jim came in and 
 
THE DENOUEMENT 357 
 
 noticed the letter waiting there. The latter sat 
 down at the head of their modest " board " and 
 picked up the envelope. He put on his spec 
 tacles and read the superscription over several 
 times in some perplexity. 
 
 " Hello! what's this?" he exclaimed, looking 
 over the top of his glasses at the others, in 
 quiringly. ' ' Some fellow must be in a prodigi 
 ous hurry to collect his monthly bill of me I 
 wonder who it can be sent by special delivery, 
 too!" 
 
 He broke the seal with his table knife and 
 drew out a tinted and scented double sheet of 
 fine paper bearing a lozenged crest. Readjust 
 ing his glasses, he read aloud, while John 
 "smiled on" knowingly and Jemima sat listen 
 ing, open-mouthed and flustered by all this mys 
 tery. The contents of the enclosed note were 
 as follows: 
 
 "Chicago, January 1, 19 . 
 
 "Dear Friends and Benefactors: 
 
 "May we beg that the foster-parents of our son, John 
 Manning, will accept from the parents of our son, Eric 
 Marotte, with their sincerest gratitude and loving remem 
 brance, this slight memento of our thanks for and heartfelt 
 appreciation of their noble guardianship of the boy we each 
 so dearly love? 
 
 "Francois Marotte", 
 "Marie Ingeborg Ericsson Marotte, 
 Mr. and Mrs. James Manning." 
 
 Jim removed his spectacles and clandestinely 
 dabbed his eyes with his napkin, pretending the 
 
358 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 glasses hurt Mm. A flood of half sad, half re- 
 joiceful, reveries dimmed the eyes of his wife. 
 John looked unsatisfied. 
 
 "Hand me that envelope for a minute, 
 father," said he. He held it up to the light 
 of the window. 
 
 "Yes, there's another enclosure in it," he 
 mused, handing it back. Jim mechanically in 
 serted his thumb and index finger in the en 
 velope and pulled forth the second, single, sheet 
 enclosed. He put on his glasses again and slow 
 ly unfolded it, smoothing out its creases with 
 his big hand. As he perused its face he started 
 in sudden astonishment, then silently passed 
 it with an unsteady hand to Jemima. 
 
 It was a check on the Bank of Montreal 
 drawn to the joint order of himself and his 
 wife for twenty-two thousand dollars one thou 
 sand dollars for each and every year of John's 
 young life, up to the time he became, in prac 
 tice, as he had always been in fact, Eric Marotte. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PERORATION 
 
 T was long before his old friends 
 could get used to his change of 
 appellation. Eric had many 
 deeply interesting and signifi 
 cant talks with his new-found 
 father and mother between Christmas and New 
 Years, as they had so much to tell each other, 
 and such an experience was so rare that they 
 could hardly become tired of it quickly. He 
 learned that his father, Francois Marotte, was 
 a descendant of a Bourbon emigre who had fled 
 to Canada during a French emeute that threat 
 ened both his life and his estates. That his 
 mother was the granddaughter, on her mother's 
 side, of one of the foremost poets and philoso 
 phers of the Scandinavian literati, who had died 
 possessed of little else except undying fame and 
 the consciousness of leaving the literature and 
 hearts of his countrymen greatly enriched and 
 expanded by the genius of his life. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Marotte were inordinately 
 proud of their son's well-earned achievements 
 and success and yet more greatly set up by his 
 unlooked-for refinement and cultivation and 
 educational proficiency. They saw that they 
 
 359 
 
360 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 could scarcely have done better by him them 
 selves than he had, without their aid, been equal 
 to doing for himself; nor could they have 
 chosen or imagined a truer and more charming 
 bride for him than Gretchen. Blood had told. 
 
 Eric's engagement to Gretchen was imme 
 diately announced, and, as the latter had never 
 been a debutante at a regular "coming out" 
 party, the Hummelmuellers decided to give in 
 stead a "betrothal ball" for her and Eric at 
 Chicago's most fashionable dancing academy, 
 located on the South side in the vicinity of 
 Twenty-third street and Lake Michigan. 
 
 This, the most important event of that social 
 season, came off on the last day of the year, as 
 a sort of poetic farewell to old conditions and 
 greeting to the new. The account of Eric's 
 change of fortune and name had spread rapidly 
 over the city before the date of the ball, and, 
 true to their ingrained, natural instincts and 
 breeding, all the prigs and snobs and cads of 
 society who had so recently and deliberately 
 turned their backs on him as John Manning, 
 the alleged illegitimate Negro foundling, now, 
 with admirable volte-face, fell over each other 
 (metaphorically speaking) in their ridiculous 
 efforts to ingratiate or re-establish themselves 
 in the good graces of Eric Marotte, the heir- 
 presumptive millionaire and the affianced hus- 
 
PERORATION 361 
 
 band of the most beautiful girl in Chicago, heir 
 ess to still other millions. 
 
 When, on the night of the ball itself, Eric 
 lead Gretchen from the ladies ' dressing quarters 
 into the great dancing hall with its wax-pol 
 ished floor and hanging balconies and its arti 
 ficial candle-light, there was an instant craning 
 of necks and rustling of skirts and skirmishing 
 for vantage points from which to view the two 
 most talked about young people of the season; 
 and as they crossed the length of the room and 
 came slowly back, arm in arm, to their station 
 with the host and hostess at the main entrance 
 to the floor, so striking was their appearance 
 and manner that this assemblage of the * ' flower 
 of Chicago's aristocracy" almost applauded. 
 
 Then, two by two, as the animals went into 
 old Noah's ark, a continuous line of couples 
 passed by them to make their best devoirs and 
 to meet, with mingled curiosity and respect, the 
 respective parents of the hero and heroine of 
 Chicago's greatest and most baffling historical 
 romance. 
 
 Gretchen wore decollete for the first time, 
 and her beautifully-rounded, evenly-fleshed bare 
 arms and shoulders gleamed dully like those of 
 a Galatean marble quickening to the breath of 
 love, their color slightly tinged and vastly beau 
 tified by that extremely captivating, evanescent, 
 
362 BRIG MAROTTE 
 
 underlying flush so rarely seen in tawny skins. 
 Her heavy red-gold hair, the despair of "coif- 
 furers" and the envy of every female heart, 
 was parted over the centre of her cool, broad 
 forehead with its perfect eyebrows, and held in 
 two massive waves by an unjeweled chaplet of 
 dull gold leaves, from which it was drawn back, 
 partly concealing her lobeless ears, and fell 
 thence in three long, unbraided locks, two of 
 them brought forward under her ears and fall 
 ing over her tantalizing shoulders, the other 
 trailing down her back. 
 
 She was robed in a loose and flowing Empire 
 ball-gown of deep-crimson velvet with regal 
 train, that accentuated her unusual stature, and 
 the opening of which rested below each of her 
 shoulders in a Rococo line of equal height at 
 back and front, its upper edge trimmed with a 
 wide, oriental-looking and irregularly outlined 
 border of dull pink and pearl, which gave the 
 needed relief of worked design to the gown's 
 rich simplicity. She wore no jewels at all. 
 
 Eric had never seen her so surpassingly 
 lovely. Her wide-set, fawnlike eyes between 
 which the bridge of her very slightly retrousse 
 nose widened and flattened upward to form its 
 perfectly curved union with her eyebrows, a 
 union as true as that of the Venus of Milo ; her 
 delicately chiseled nostrils above a cherry lip 
 
PEKORATION 363 
 
 like Cupid's bow; her strong, round chin and 
 the slightly flattened oval of her jaws; her won 
 derful teeth that dazzled like an ever-changing 
 vision; the firm, round domes of her bosom ris 
 ing and falling in maddening semi-view below 
 her full, clear throat and tapering neck; her 
 queenly grace and carriage; her heavenly smile 
 all these helped to give to her a tout ensem 
 ble resistless to every sense of love, of beauty, 
 and of passion. 
 
 Later in the evening, Eric remarked to his 
 new mother, half ruefully, half humorously, that 
 "it was lucky for him that he 'saw her first' 
 and had already appropriated her; for in 
 twenty-four hours more she would have had the 
 whole male population of the town at her feet 
 and he would have had the fight of his life on 
 his hands." 
 
 Eric himself was, fortunately, one of that 
 small minority of men who wear full-dress like 
 conventionalized gods, instead of appearing in 
 it like so many " Bully Bottoms" in some mod 
 ernized, mortal Midsummer Night's Dream; and 
 his former premature dignity of sorrow was 
 now replaced by the nobler dignity of love. 
 
 Madly infatuated with her as Gretchen knew 
 him to be, she yet looked askance at the ill-con 
 cealed glances of approval with which the rival 
 beauties tried to catch his eye. 
 
364 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 The "ball" rolled on to the airs of waltz and 
 two-step (this was before the decadent days of 
 the "turkey-trot," the "grizzly bear" and the 
 "tango") and the muffled sound of busy 
 spoons and forks; and so the old year, with all 
 its heart-burnings and exciting changes, passed 
 away forever, and the new year dawned, amidst 
 jangling bells and tooting horns and screaming 
 whistles, with a promise in it all their own for 
 Eric and Oretchen. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Marotte wished the marriage 
 to take place while they were in Chicago, so 
 they could carry the bride and groom home with 
 them to Canada for their honeymoon. And as 
 a long engagement was out of the question any 
 how, under the circumstances of the "affi- 
 anceds ' ' ' already perfect understanding of each 
 other and long waiting for so many years back, 
 the nuptial ceremony was set for the day, Jan 
 uary seventh, approaching, just one week ' l after 
 the ball was over." 
 
 Deeming the publicity gained and the oppor 
 tunity given society to greet the young lovers 
 already sufficient for the amenities, the con 
 sensus of family opinions was that the wedding 
 should be a simple home affair, with only rel 
 atives and a few intimate and old friends pres 
 ent, especially as another reception was await 
 ing the bridal party among the friends of the 
 
PERORATION 365 
 
 Marotte's in Montreal. It was arranged that 
 immediately after the wedding breakfast, 
 Gretchen was to don her traveling costume and 
 depart with Eric and her father-and-mother- 
 in-law for their Canadian home. 
 
 The ceremony was celebrated at high-noon 
 of the day appointed; and as Eric and Gretchen 
 stood together before the officiating man of God 
 called to confirm this " marriage made in 
 Heaven," and answered the momentous ques 
 tions and took the solemn oaths of this most 
 impressive service of the church; all who 
 watched them vowed them to be the handsomest 
 bridal couple they had ever seen. With many 
 fond and tearful adieux and loving parting 
 wishes and commands, the Marottes, who had 
 come as two and now went forth as four in 
 number, were escorted to the two waiting 
 limousines, and whirled in them to the railway 
 station, the two " bereaved" families following 
 them in the Hummelmuellers ' "coach and 
 two." More laughter, tears, embraces, kisses, 
 and the long length of the "Limited Express" 
 "pulled out," serpentining through the train- 
 yard amidst the waving of handkerchiefs and 
 the last, long, lingering looks of love. 
 
 That night, alone together in the state-room 
 of the palatial "sleeper" northward bound, Eric 
 
366 ERIC MAROTTE 
 
 and Gretchen reached the acme of their happi 
 ness, so long deferred. 
 
 And here I reach the climax of my story, and 
 turn out the light. 
 
 For, he who still proceeds beyond the climax 
 of his tale, goes down, not up, the long, weary 
 hill of entertainment, in but a vain endeavor. 
 
 Napoleon said at St. Helena, "I should have 
 died at Waterloo!" 
 
 And if any reader deems the characters, plot 
 and incidents herein depicted and recorded, 
 lacking in verisimilitude and fecundity, or in 
 essentials of the higher form of fiction ; let the 
 disappointed one reconcile these things as best 
 he can; but remember, that I could not make 
 them otherwise if I would, because the story's 
 true to life, and I am simply the historian. 
 
 As to the motif of the book, I have read 
 somewhere, "It is the mission of all literature 
 worth while, to express the aspiration of the 
 century in which the author lives and has his 
 being, towards a higher and juster social life; 
 towards the gradual coming of God's kingdom 
 on earth when His Will shall at last be done 
 on earth as it is in Heaven." 
 
 AND FURTHER DEPONENT SAITH NOT. 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
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 RENEWED BOOKS ARE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE 
 RECALL 
 
 LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS 
 
 Book Slip-25m-6,'66(G3855s4)458 
 
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 Pearce, J,I 
 
 The strange case of 
 Eric Marotte. 
 
 PS3531 
 
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 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
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